Magi Ranger
by Tenstar12
Summary: Betrayed by the world he had given his all to save, Harry finds himself cast into the void. With some help Harry ends up in another dimension, but in classic Harry Potter fashion gets himself into trouble almost immediately. Can he make his way in this strange world he finds himself in where giant monster attacks are a daily occurrence and hardly anything is familiar? AU Harry, MOD
1. Chapter 1

Magi Ranger

By: Tenstar12

Introductory Author's Note: Welcome one and all to Magi Ranger! A few things to keep in mind as you read through this story.

First off, this is very much an AU version of Harry. Many things may not make sense when you first read them and likely won't for some time, but Harry's background does get explained in a later chapter.

In regard to the romance aspect of the story, it is very slow to develop and largely exists in the background. There may be a chapter here and there that focus primarily on Harry's love life, but it will never be the sole focus of the entire story. Also, there will be no, I repeat, NO lemons of any kind. Look at the rating people, not gonna push things here. Also, also, this story does not include slash or harem pairings. Harry will be monogamously paired with a woman by the end of the story, so don't go expecting more than that.

For those of you who are curious, I intend to cover Seasons 1-6 of Power Rangers over the duration of this story. That is Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers (Original, Thunder, and Ninja), Power Rangers Zeo, Power Rangers Turbo, and Power Rangers In Space. These 6 seasons were the ones I grew up on and pretty much cover the entirety of my knowledge of the Power Rangers universe. I never watched all the way through Season 7, Lost Galaxy, and barely touched on the ones after that. Aside from that, covering just the so called "Zordon Era" just seems more fitting to me and makes a rather satisfactory place to end things to my thinking.

I typically respond to every review that's more than the typical "great chapter, update soon" variety, so feel free to ask questions. I can't guarantee that I'll answer everything as I have to keep some future plans under wraps, but if you want some elaboration on something in story, feel free to ask. And if anyone has any suggestions, I'm also happy to hear them. Many ideas I've had thus far for Magi Ranger have come from such suggestions and discussions following them. Just don't forget to log in and have PM's enabled. I will not be answering reviews and such in chapter.

And with that out of the way, on to what everyone is really here for…

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or Power Rangers.

 **Chapter 1, or The First Obligatory Expositionary Chapter**

The walk through the Department of Magical Law Enforcement was nothing new for Harry Potter. In fact, he had made the trip several times since the end of the war against Voldemort; though that was mostly for meetings with Kingsley Shacklebolt, the head of the Department since the war ended, and a few briefings on trials for the captured Death Eaters.

Though that wasn't the reason now at all.

" _Harry James Potter, by order of Minister of Magic Delores Umbridge…"_

After the war ended and the immediate trials were taken care of everything went wrong.

"… _and in accordance with the newly instated Ministerial Decree for the Prevention of Megalomaniacal Acts…"_

The pureblood supremacists, at least those not so fanatical (or stupid) as to follow Voldemort, had barely waited until the last confirmed Death Eater was sent through the Veil before they made their move.

"… _you have been deemed to be too powerful to be left to wander the world free from constraints…"_

Lead by Delores Umbridge, who had believed in Voldemort's cause but didn't openly serve him, they proposed and passed a law in the Wizengamot. Mostly passed through blackmail and threats of those few Lords and Ladies that remained, the new law allowed them to move against the largest threat to their takeover of the magical world: Harry Potter.

"… _and due to your refusal to swear a magical oath of loyalty and servitude to the current Minister of Magic, Delores Umbridge…"_

The "Ministerial Decree for the Prevention of Megalomaniacal Acts" was Umbridge's brainchild. Passed on the coattails of the hysteria caused by the recent threat Voldemort had posed, it stated in a nutshell that any member of the British magical community that exceeded a certain level of magical power or showed an excessive level of magical prowess would be deemed a threat to the stability of magical society and immediately be taken into Ministry custody pending further evaluation. Once in said custody, they would be given the option to swear an oath to serve the Minister of Magic unquestioningly or…

"… _it is the decision of this body that you are to be sentenced to death by the Veil. Your execution is to be carried out at the soonest possible opportunity and all assets held by yourself and House Potter are to be confiscated by the Ministry upon the completion of this execution."_

The group of "Ministry Approved" Aurors had come to Grimmauld Place a few days after the initial announcement of the new law and taken him in his sleep. Normally they wouldn't have been able to get through the wards, which are what held them off for those few days, but this time Ron was leading them. Apparently his former friend had been promised a part of the Potter fortune if he helped Umbridge's Ministry get to Harry.

The joke was on them though. Harry had used his last few days on the outside to dispose of the entirety of the Potter fortune. Some of it he gave as gifts to those few people who hadn't betrayed him. Some was donated to various charitable causes both magical and muggle. The rest, a not insubstantial sum all said and done, was in a mokeskin bag, charmed with the best Notice-Me-Not that the Elder Wand could produce, and tied around his left ankle.

Harry found a certain morbid humor in the thought that they would literally be throwing the only money they could expect to get out of the Potter fortune through the Veil with him.

The "Ministry Approved" Aurors who had brought Harry in hadn't been unnecessarily rough during the operation from what he could tell after the fact, nor had they any problem with their job. Though that could have been because he was unconscious the entire time. Several regular Aurors in the department, particularly those who served prison guard duty, had raised issue with him, the famous Man-Who-Won, being held in prison on what even the sheep of the Wizarding World recognized as trumped up charges that wouldn't hold unless those in power forced the issue.

Those Aurors quickly became silent before their cries of injustice could gain traction and momentum under threats of treason charges filed by the new minister herself.

The trial itself, if one could even call it that, was a complete and utter farce. The jury consisted of a limited, and, of course, completely "random" selection from the remaining Wizengamot members, all of whom were Umbridge supporters who had been promised a cut of the Potter money and none of whom had any reason to rule in Harry's favor even without that.

The only evidence presented were readings of the level of Harry's Magical Core taken without his knowledge or consent during his hospital stay after the final battle with Voldemort. The readings showed that his power level was in the 91st percentile of all magicals in Britain's recorded history, which was well over the acceptable "limit." Also shown were memories of the battle with Voldemort, submitted by Aurors who had fought alongside Harry, to demonstrate his knowledge and ability in combat related magics.

Harry was offered no opportunity to plead his own defense, not that they would have listened to anything he had to say anyway.

The only visitor he had received during his overnight incarceration after the trial had been a teary eyed Hermione. It was she who told Harry of Ron's betrayal (and her subsequent ending of their relationship) and of her fruitless search for some way, _any_ way, to help him out of the hole he had been thrown into by the corruption of the British Magical World.

Harry had just hugged her, letting her cry herself out on his shoulder, and told her about the money he left for her with the goblins of Gringotts with the caveat that she hadn't been involved in the betrayal, which she thankfully hadn't. He wasn't as surprised as she had been by the sudden turn of events leading up to his arrest and sentencing. His paranoia had grown quite a bit during his campaign against Voldemort after their 7th year at Hogwarts had concluded and he was unfortunately well aware of the level of pureblood beliefs in their government even before Voldemort took over.

He had learned of Umbridge's reputation with only a few very light inquiries, so well-known was her stance. This made her practically untouchable during the months that the Dark Lord held the Ministry within his grasp and left her in a strong position to bulldoze her way into power after his fall, which she had done without hesitation.

Hermione had been somewhat shocked by his seemingly casual acceptance of impending death and vehemently denied wanting any of his money before offering to find a way to break him out. He quickly told her off, not wanting Hermione to risk her own shaky freedom as a Muggleborn in Umbridge controlled Magical Britain. They both knew that it was only her popularity as one of the main witches who fought alongside the Man-Who-Won against Voldemort that kept her safe and Umbridge somewhat delayed in enacting her Anti-Muggleborn policies.

It was a protection that they both also knew would fade quickly once Harry was gone and Umbridge started her inevitable campaign to slander his memory.

Before the sympathetic Aurors escorted Hermione back out of the holding cells, she and Harry exchanged one last hug and he gave her a light kiss on the cheek, whispering for her to keep herself safe and not to worry about him. He would take care of things on his end, just as he always did.

Self-sacrifice had been practically beaten into him by Dumbledore's early machinations before he had been forcefully brought about to see the light.

She had left him there with a look of regret and longing in her eyes, barely masking the confusion and ever present curiosity brought to the fore by his somewhat cryptic last statement to her.

They kept their eyes locked, a half smile on his face, until she rounded the corner.

The next morning, Umbridge herself had shown up at his cell door dressed in her best, and most offensive, bright pink, frilly dress with a few of her favorite and most supportive Aurors in tow to escort him to the Department of Mysteries. She wanted to see to his death in person.

The walk through the Department of Magical Law Enforcement was nothing new for Harry Potter… but this would be his last…

-MR-

Once they got into the Elevator and the doors shut, Umbridge just couldn't help but start talking at him. At him because he had a silencing charm placed over him so there was no way he could respond even if he had been of a mind to do so. Magic restraining cuffs prevented him from breaking the charm himself or making any kind of escape attempt.

"You know Harry, (may I call you Harry? Of course I can.) I have been looking forward to this day for quite some time," she said with a voice as sweet as she could make it, yet which still failed to cover the underlying malice in her character that practically dripped from every word, "You caused quite a bit of trouble for my dear Minister Fudge during his tenure in office, especially after that debacle with the Triwizard Tournament. If you had just kept silent then everything would have worked out much smoother. We had designs in place, you see, my supporters and I, to… mitigate The Dark Lord if he returned as we, too, had heard tales of him allegedly surmounting death."

Harry's eyes darted to where she was standing just in front of him, facing the doors of the elevator as it traveled, one eyebrow raising in silent, and unnoticed, inquiry. "We all knew from the beginning that he was a bit too insane to stop at just killing off all the Muggleborn and half-blooded filth that filled our otherwise perfect world, but you had to go and shout out his return, making it a much more public issue. And then my poor Minister Fudge tried to silence you with that smear campaign. Oh, how I wish he had been able to get me into Hogwarts in your fifth year, young man. I would have silenced you quite handily, I'm sure." At this, she turned and shot him a sneer from her vaguely toad-like face, "I had plans for that as well you see, Harry."

The elevator dinged as a voice announced, "Department of Mysteries," and the doors opened with a clack. One of the two Aurors behind him jabbed him in the back with his wand as Umbridge started her way slowly out the doors, prompting him to follow.

As the small group made their way down the hall to the Department, Umbridge continued her tirade. "But things all worked out in the end, even if a bit more messily than they should have had to be. The Dark Lord is slain and you are soon to follow him. With you gone I will be able to announce your *ahem* _true plans_ for the Wizarding community as discovered by myself and my loyal team of Aurors, which will cause my popularity ratings to skyrocket and allow me to begin disposing of the… undeserving in our world, once more returning it to the state of purity it was in times of old."

Harry let out a magically silent scoff. She was going to try and claim that he was about to attempt a hostile takeover of the Wizarding World in the same fashion as Voldemort had. How incredibly surprising. The sad part was that Harry knew that the majority of the Wizarding public, save the few people who knew him and that he trusted, would buy it immediately and without question.

"And also, I have wonderful plans for all the wonderful gold I'm going to get from the Potter Fortune as my share of the spoils for arranging your capture and preventing you from your dark designs for our fair community. Oh yes. Kittens. Lots of kittens. And pink!" Umbridge giggled, a truly horrifying sound if Harry had ever heard one, and more than enough confirmation that this woman was just as off her rocker as she had accused Voldemort of being. He could almost feel the two Aurors shifting somewhat uneasily behind him, knowing that they too felt unease despite their loyalty to the toad woman.

Sobering herself quickly as they reached the entrance to the Department of Mysteries, Umbridge continued as she opened the door, "Oh yes, there are grand things coming for the British Wizarding Community, Harry. A pity you won't be around to see any of them." She led the small group into a round room through the doorway and called out, "Death Chamber!" setting the walls around them to spinning rapidly before slowing to an eventual stop. One of the many doors set into the walls began letting off a soft glow, apparently indicating their requested room.

When they entered the Death Chamber, Harry immediately took notice of the sound of vague whispers emanating from the arch standing on a raised platform at the lowest part of the room, wispy curtains fluttering despite the still air. The second thing he noticed was a covered shape sitting on the same platform that held the Veil of Death.

"Oh good," Umbridge spoke up again, "I was hoping it would already be here when we arrived. No need to delay now! You see Harry, it is not enough for me to simply arrange your death to get you out of the way. For everything you have done that interfered with our plans, I decided that everything you are must be wiped out from this world. This is why I arranged for your family assets to be confiscated… well, that and the kittens."

She giggled again briefly before she led them down to stand just before the veil, the Aurors moving him into position around five feet from the arch and turning him around to face the two Aurors and the smiling Umbridge who was now holding the covered object, one hand underneath it, which was rocking slightly. "As I said, Harry," Umbridge spoke again, one hand coming up to grasp the cover at the top, "all that you are, all that was associated with you, must be removed. I intend to do whatever it takes to destroy your spirit before you die, just for my own personal enjoyment. And that includes dealing with your little friend here."

The cover was swiftly removed to reveal his owl, Hedwig, looking somewhat battered and with several of her feathers sticking up at odd angles. She was standing in a cage that was intended for a creature the size of a mouse or hamster and throwing herself at one of the walls in a desperate attempt to escape. The moment the light hit her she twisted her head around one way and then the other before resting her eyes on Harry, the Familiar Bond between the two lighting up once more as the blocking magic that the cover must have been infused with was removed.

 _-Harry/Wizard!-_ the owl cried out in his mind, relief and fear tinging her mind-voice in equal parts.

Harry, for his part, was smiling softly at one of his oldest companions: his Familiar. It was a bond that had formed exceptionally quickly, at least in part due to Harry's lonely upbringing leaving him with a nearly desperate need for companionship during the time she came into his life, and Harry treasured his beloved owl more than most anything else.

Which made what they both knew had to be coming all the more painful.

"Yes, Harry," Umbridge simpered, her face slowly twisting into a crooked smile, "Your Familiar. This wretched beast took us quite a bit of time to track down in that house of yours, but young mister Weasley once again proved his usefulness in our endeavor. He shall be handsomely rewarded for his efforts."

Harry's eyes narrowed once more, his gaze switching from Hedwig to Umbridge, threatening her with his look, trying to warn her off of what she was almost undoubtedly going to do.

The Toad merely let her smile grow in both size and apparent wickedness. "This beast is important to you, as any Familiar should be to their witch or wizard, halfblood filth or not." She drew a wand that he immediately recognized as his own Holly and Phoenix feather. "But she represents an obstacle that must be removed and an important support block for yourself. Ending her with your own wand is only icing on the metaphorical cake."

Harry's eyes flipped back to his beloved snowy owl, seeing the resignation and sadness in her own always too intelligent and expressive eyes, as Umbridge eased the tip of the Holly wand through the bars of the cage. Before the witch could speak her incantation, however, Hedwig's eyes picked up a hint of mischief. Without warning, the owl shifted her stance, driving the talons on her right foot through the gaps in the bottom of the cage and into the fleshy palm of Umbridge's off hand.

The woman let out a screech of pain and flung her hand out, throwing the cage and trying to dislodge the bird. Hedwig hung on doggedly for a short time before, on a particularly hard fling, her talons tore free in a spray of blood and a few bits of flesh as the cage went flying. It went bouncing along the ground around ten feet before sliding to a stop, leaving Hedwig rather dazed and even more ruffled than before while Umbridge cursed up a storm.

"You there!" Umbridge snapped at one of the Aurors, "Bring that cage back over here, and you," she glared at the other, "tend to my injury!" The two Aurors immediately moved to do as told, the first snagging Hedwig's cage with a levitation charm and floating it back to the group and the other stepping up to silently cast a quick series of charms on Umbridge's hand. The woman spent those moments shifting her furious glare between Harry and an unmistakably smug looking Hedwig.

Once she had been assured that her hand was once more whole, Umbridge snatched up Harry's wand from where she had dropped it after Hedwig's assault, "I hope you don't mind if I don't waste any more time, Harry. This creature has pushed me a bit too far at this point."

As Umbridge once more aimed Harry's wand at his Familiar, the owl met his eyes, sending a pulse of affection and gratitude along their bond and bringing tears to his eyes. – _Worry not Harry/Wizard_ \- Hedwig spoke to him one last time, - _I will be with you always. You must simply know where to look.-_

Before Harry had time to process the strangely cryptic statement from the owl, Umbridge let out a vicious, "AVADA KEDAVRA!" and Hedwig's life, and the bond between the two of them, was severed with a flash of acid green light.

Harry felt the tears in his eyes grow further still, and he closed them tight, unable to stop the single drop that trailed down his cheek at the loss of one of his closest friends. "Well," Umbridge spoke, once more using her pseudo-pleasant tone, "now that that's taken care of," she casually shoved the cage with Hedwig's corpse away from her with an uncaring swipe of her arm, knocking it out of the Auror's levitation charm and letting it bounce away before sliding to a stop, "I can deal with this." Harry opened his eyes just in time to see her smirk before snapping his faithful wand in two, then doubling those halves up and snapping it again before throwing the pieces at him, letting them bounce off his face and chest and fall to the floor between them.

There was a moment of almost silence when Harry swore he could hear a faint burst of mournful Phoenix song before his own anger rushed to the forefront. He was no longer in the least bit hesitant in what he was about to do.

Umbridge, ignorant or uncaring of his anger, sighed happily, "Now Harry, as I'm sure you know, seeing as how you presided over quite a few Veil executions as I recall, the prisoner will be graciously given the opportunity for any last words in the world of the living." She nodded to one of the Aurors who canceled the silencing charm with a flourish of his wand. "So dear Harry Potter, Savior of the Wizarding World and Man-Who-Won, do you have any last words?"

Harry glared at Umbridge for a moment before letting his own smirk stretch across his face, "Only this," he croaked before clearing his throat, "I, Lord Harry James Potter, hereby declare that any and all individuals that intentionally helped you with the creation of your ridiculous Ministerial Decree for the Prevention of Megalomaniacal Acts or helped to arrange this farcical trial and execution is in violation of debts owed to my person. I name you all Oath Breakers! Deceivers! Unfaithful and unworthy of protection and the gift of Magic! On the moment of my upcoming death by execution, may each and every one of you feel the wrath of your own magic taken out on yourself! And you Delores Umbridge, let you feel this pain tenfold for your own crimes, both committed thus far and planned for the future. So I declare, SO MOTE IT BE!"

Umbridge's face took on a look of shock before her smile once more spread across her face, "And what exactly did you think that would accomplish Harry? Nobody here owes you any debts. Your little bluff, while an admirable attempt, is ultimately for nothing."

"Oh no?" Harry smirked back, "I can state with a high level of confidence that each and every Magical in Great Britain, and quite possibly the entire world, owes me a Life Debt for defeating Voldemort when I did. Not only was I the only one who could kill him, I stopped him from bringing about the death of all of us."

"And how exactly did you do that?" Umbridge scoffed.

Harry chuckled slightly, "Voldemort was about to take an action that would immediately and irreversibly reveal the existence of the magical world to the Muggles, and they would have reacted rather poorly, if history is anything to go by. They would have hunted down and killed every last magical on this planet without fail or hesitation. That is why I went to finish things when I did, despite the fact that I really wasn't fully prepared for it. I had no choice. If I hadn't taken care of things then, everyone would have died."

Umbridge stared at him incredulously before flinging her head back and laughing like she had just heard the funniest thing in her life. "A Life Debt? For 'saving' us all from the _Muggles!?_ You have quite the imagination on you, Harry. Muggles are absolutely no threat to even the weakest of pureblood magicals. There is no Life Debt. There cannot possibly be one."

Harry moved then, stepping up to stand right in front of her and a bit more than a head taller, making the two Aurors brandish their wands, "Then send me through the veil, _Minister_. Complete your execution and find out just how right I am."

The woman looked slightly taken aback for a moment before growling and drawing her own wand. "Your last gamble won't pay off boy," she grumbled as she pressed the tip of her wand into Harry's chest, pushing him back slowly till he was at arm's length from her, though that was admittedly not too far. "You have been sentenced to death under the Ministerial Decree for the Prevention of Megalomaniacal Acts and so by the power vested in me by myself as the Minister of Magic, I hereby carry out your sentence. Die Potter!"

Following her final declaration, the woman sent out a surprisingly strong burst of pure, emotion fueled magic that sent the still smirking Harry flying backward and through the veil. As he passed through the barrier, he kept going straight back, the archway looking like an open doorway to the land of the living that was shrinking as he traveled away from it. However, he couldn't miss the look of pain and horror on the faces of Umbridge and the two Aurors as their own magic attacked them from within, carrying out Magic's will at their betrayal of the one who saved them all from certain death…

-MR-

It didn't take long for Harry to grow tired of the continuous flying he had been doing since he had passed through the Veil. He was unable to change his relative trajectory or speed (as far as he could tell) no matter how he twisted or turned. To be honest he had no idea how long it had been in the first place. Ten minutes… Ten hours… Time had lost meaning ever since he had lost sight of the doorway to the Living World. He was surrounded by nothing but endless darkness and the vague feeling of moving straight back ever since he had been blasted by Umbridge's last spell. On the bright side though, the lack of scenery did leave him plenty of time for ruminations.

His life had sucked. Majorly.

Alright, to be fair it had only taken him a few moments to come to that conclusion, but the point still stood. Between his early life with the Dursleys, his tumultuous time at Hogwarts that ultimately led to the discovery of his destiny, the eventual completion of said destiny, and let's not forget the cluster-fuck that he had just finished dealing with, he really hadn't had any true time to live…

- _That is exactly what the prophecy warned of, my Master… Neither can_ live _while the other survives…-_

Harry jerked slightly, twisting his head around to try and find the source of the strange, echoing yet still whisper-like voice that had spoken. That had called him Master…

"Who… No, where are you?" He spoke, hesitating only briefly.

- _I am here with you, my Master…-_ the voice trailed off at the end, leaving only its eerie echo behind.

"Alright," Harry gave a sigh, his recent imprisonment and the now seemingly endless darkness around him leaving him with only so much patience. "At the risk of sounding ignorant, why can't I see you then?"

The voice seemed to chuckle a bit, truly a disturbing sound, before it spoke once more, - _My apologies Master, I shall reveal myself at once._ \- Harry saw only a flash of black light that somehow still stood out amongst the blackness around him before he noticed that there was now the vaguest outline of a figure before him. The more he focused, the clearer it became, if only because the full length cloak it was wearing was somehow even _more_ black than their surroundings; an absence of light, even amongst an absence of light.

"Ok, now back to my earlier aborted question, who are you?"

The figure seemed to let out a sniff, as if they felt the question unnecessary, - _Can you not guess Master? Is this form I have taken not stereotypical enough for you? Do I need a scythe and visible skull as well?-_

Harry's eyes narrowed as he studied the figure more closely. Its full length cloak wrapped tightly around a nearly too thin looking waist, flaring out where its hips would be and fluttering in the almost-wind created by Harry's flight as it matched him, though never revealing any part of the figure it covered. The top half remained rather skin tight up over the still thin shoulders and arms which hung limply down by the figure's sides. A drawn hood shadowed any further features in darkness, not giving even the slightest hint as to its wearer's identity.

'OK,' Harry thought to himself, 'so I've got a very tall and skinny person in an all-consuming black cloak and hood who seems to think I'm their master… A scythe and a skull to make it more stereotypical…' "Death…" Harry's revelation escaped unintentionally from his lips in a half-choked whisper as he looked to the figure with renewed wonder tinted with fear.

- _Indeed Master. I am the entity known to mortals as 'Death.' I am the one who ferries the souls of those once amongst the living who are no longer so to their proper destination. I am the Judge of the wicked and the Shepherd to those who have earned their last rest.-_

Harry let out a sigh, a small smile forming at the corners of his mouth, "Is that why you're here then? To take me to my final rest? Well, anything would be better than this endless void, so have at me."

The figure's hood shook back and forth, almost sadly Harry thought, - _I am afraid I cannot do that Master, for you are not yet dead and are therefore out of my purview.-_

Harry's eyes widened, "What the hell do you mean I'm not dead? I got blasted through the Veil of Death! And would you please stop calling me 'Master?'"

 _-I cannot stop calling you my master for that is exactly what you are, Master. And your survival at this moment is intrinsically linked to that very status as my master, Master.-_ Harry now knew that, among other things, Death was a complete smart ass.

Taking a deep breath, Harry shook his head slowly. "I'm afraid you have it wrong big guy. I don't have the three Hallows on me. They were all taken by the Ministry when they abducted me in my sleep. If nothing else, I know the Elder Wand has been passed to another wielder before due to circumstances similar to my own. I can't possibly be the Master of Death."

Death scoffed again, - _Do you honestly think that I can be wrong about who is the true master of my three Hallows?-_ One of Death's arms waved forward and Harry felt the whisper of the being's magic sweep over him, leaving him with an unexplainable chill. – _The loyalty of the Elder Wand was won from Dumbledore the first time you disarmed him near the end of your training and the wand itself was claimed from the Dark Lord stylizing himself as Voldemort in your final duel…-_ As the chill faded, Harry felt the comforting weight of his wand holster around his right thigh and glanced down to see the length of the Elder Wand. - _The Resurrection Stone was collected by yourself and Dumbledore and the curse was removed from it when you cleansed it of the soul fragment housed within…-_ A tingle came from his right hand and Harry looked to see the Gaunt Ring upon which the Resurrection Stone was mounted. - _And the Cloak of Invisibility has always been in your family, passed down through the generations until it finally came to you.-_ The familiar weight of his father's invisibility cloak settled on his shoulders, fluttering around him much like the cloak around Death.

Harry gathered himself for a moment before speaking, "But that doesn't explain why I am still the master of the Elder Wand when I was defeated by one of Umbridge's Aurors when they took me in."

Death seemed to let off an aura of satisfaction. - _There are two ways to look at this: the way things happened, and the way you are trying to see things. I assure you that they both lead to the same result. You were disarmed by an Auror during your capture, but as you are the first to reunite my Hallows and become the true Master of Death since their creation, the wand is now eternally loyal to you and only you will be able to draw out its full power. Add in to that your final act of defiance to Umbridge causing the death of every corrupt Auror and ministry official in Magical Britain and you will find that you are still the master by conquest as it was by your magical oath and decree that the Auror who disarmed you met his own end.-_

Harry groaned, "Alright then, I can see you have me out maneuvered there, but here's another repeat for you. Why am I not dead?"

- _Master, I assume you know nothing of the true benefits of the title of the Master of Death.-_ At Harry's negative response, the entity continued, - _Being the Master of Death means only two things. One, the Hallows will forever respond to you better than they have for any other. And two, you cannot be killed by any artifact of Death.-_

"Which I assume includes the Veil of Death… and that should be obvious from the name alone." Harry resisted the urge to smack himself in the head. "So what now?"

- _Now Master, you are left with two choices. The first choice is to stay in this lovely void of never ending darkness until your mortal shell finally gives out from lack of sustenance, which will probably involve a great deal of suffering in the meantime…-_

For a being without visible eyes, Death sure could pull off a mean puppy dog look. The being seemed rather eager at the thought of Harry dying. "Yea-no. That's not really much of a choice, Death."

Death almost seemed to be pouting now as it continued, - _No, I suppose it is too much to hope for from a mortal such as yourself, Master. You have always been rather stubborn about not dying, though the anticipation has kept me on the edge of my seat, metaphorically speaking of course.-_

"Of course," Harry repeated with an eye roll, "the second option if you will…?"

- _Yes, my Master. The second option is for me to kick you out of the void and into whichever dimension happens to be… well… the word that you would most easily understand would be 'nearest,' although that hardly describes the true physics of a trans-dimensional void…-_ Death crossed his arms and drifted back and forth in front of Harry several times, apparently contemplating something well above Harry's understanding that involved trans-dimensional realities… whatever those were.

"Couldn't you just send me back home?" the wizard interrupted after what might have been a few minutes.

Death paused in his musings and turned back toward Harry, - _Alas, my Master, such a thing is beyond my power. I may be Death, but that doesn't mean I can undo several relative light years of travel. My power is based around the end of life and all aspects of it. All I can do to help you now is rip a hole in the void through brute force and allow you to drift through it. Any attempts to do anything else would require a subtlety that my powers are ill equipped to handle and it could well end in a very gruesome and painful end for yourself. And since you have expressed a disinterest in shedding your mortal coil…-_

"Yeah, I get the picture," Harry mumbled, resisting the urge to pout at the response. "Well, if that's my only choice, other than slowly starving to death in the void, I guess we'll have to go with that and hope for the best, yeah?"

 _-Indeed it is so Master, indeed it is so… Please be warned Master, I cannot influence where you will end up and it is entirely possible that you will find yourself in less than ideal circumstances when you arrive in the dimension that will become your new home. I would suggest being on your guard as much as possible if you wish to avoid regaining my company too soon.-_

"I'll keep that in mind, Death," Harry deadpanned, almost feeling the slight air of dejection coming from the entity before him.

- _See that you do. And remember, while you will retain your magic and the Hallows in this new dimension, there is no guarantee that the people you will meet will be at all accepting of them. Just a friendly caution to behave as if your 'Statute of Secrecy' is still in effect over you.-_

"Yeah, witch hunts would be bad," Harry mused.

Death nodded, - _Indeed. Well, farewell Master. Till we meet again…-_ Without another word and completely catching Harry off guard, the cloaked form before him disappeared without a trace, merely vanishing in a blink, before he felt a massive upsurge of magic, tinged with despair, directly behind him. Twisting his head around, Harry caught sight of a literal tear in the space behind him that let out a bright white glow just moments before he passed through it and found himself landing roughly on a dry and dusty patch of earth, flat on his back, knocking the air out of his lungs and making his vision go blurry.

Struggling to a sitting position, Harry focused on his breathing as best he could, trying to regain his equilibrium before running a quick check on his person.

'Ok, let's see,' he mused once his breathing evened out, 'Glasses? Check, thanks to a sticking charm… Good… Ring with the stone? Still there… Cloak? Yeah… Wand? Still here… All my limbs intact? Surprisingly enough… Damn, I think this is the least injured I've been after one of my crazy adventures…'

A flash of yellow light indicated that Harry had spoken too soon as it faded away to reveal what looked like some kind of humanoid, blue-skinned baboon like creature wearing head-to-toe golden armor and wielding a long sword. Harry quickly struggled to his feet, standing somewhat unsteadily as he drew the Elder Wand and brandished it before him in a basic dueling stance.

The creature, however, seemed to ignore him. "MISTRESS!" it thundered, looking up to the sky, "I have found the energy source! It is a mere human boy!"

There was a crack of thunder before another figure appeared in a flash of light next to the monkey-thing. This figure was a human looking woman wearing a long brown dress with wide, draping sleeves and a black frill around her neck. She had two large bundles of hair wrapped in cloth that stuck up from her head to resemble horns of some kind, and in her hand she held a staff with a ring on top resembling a crescent with a large red gem set where it connected to the staff.

"Ah!" the woman spoke with an incredibly rough voice, like a twenty a day smoker, "Yes, this human does indeed possess the power I sensed… hmm…" She brandished her staff forward and a blast of red lightning shot toward Harry.

Acting out of instinct born from long hours of training and fighting in a magical war, Harry threw up a Protego shield just in time, barely holding it against the strange sorceress's attack. "What the hell!" Harry shouted, "I've only been here for two minutes and I'm already being attacked!"

"Yes," the woman spoke, seemingly ignoring him, "I can see it now. The power I sensed comes from the wand he holds! GOLDAR! Retrieve it for me!"

The monkey thing, apparently named Goldar, brought his left arm, the one not holding his sword, across his chest and nodded, "Yes my Queen. At once." Before Harry could react further, Goldar had jumped toward him in a blur, his sword smashing into the shield dome around Harry and shattering it like glass, sending Harry once more to the ground in a cloud of dust from the backlash of his shield collapsing.

Not giving him any time, Goldar moved forward and stepped on his right wrist, pinning it to the ground and allowing him to remove the Elder Wand from Harry's numb hand without a fight before returning to the side of the sorceress. "Your prize, my queen!" he said before the two suddenly flinched, "The Rangers! They are on their way!"

"Yes," the woman said with a smirk as she examined the wand in her hands, reveling in the power coursing through it. "Let us be off then Goldar. I have what I came for."

"But what of the mageling majesty?" Goldar asked, his fiery gaze shooting to Harry as he struggled to rise from the dust, cradling his right wrist where Goldar had stomped it.

"Leave him," she responded with a sinister smile. "He is of no consequence without his focus, and I have a lot of work to do with this lovely wand…"

Goldar backed away from the woman, bowing. "As you wish, my Queen!"

Harry could only watch as the two vanished, taking the Elder Wand with them in another flash of light just as his body finally gave out on him.

His last sight before unconsciousness took him was of five different colored beams of energy touching down near him and dissipating to reveal five figures dressed in full body suits of the same colors as their respective beams…

-MR-

Thanks for reading and don't forget to review,

Tenstar12


	2. Chapter 2

Magi Ranger

By: Tenstar12

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or Power Rangers.

 **Chapter 2, or The Second Obligatory Expositionary Chapter**

When Harry finally came to once again, he found himself lying on his back on a strangely comfortable single wide bed, or fancy cot, in a room with a black ceiling and various random beeps sounding off around him. With a groan, he sat up and glanced around, taking note of the various columns that shone with randomly changing colors and the computer consoles that were spaced in a circle around him in the center of the room. Hesitantly, he walked over toward one of the consoles, this one in particular with a large empty tube like… thing behind it, in an attempt to try and find some kind of clue as to where he was and what had happened to him.

"Ai yai yai yai yai! No! Don't touch that!"

Harry immediately spun around and found himself looking at what appeared to be a mostly red and gold colored robot with several lights and dials on his torso and what looked like a flying saucer for a head. Harry's response was quite reasonable if one took into account his background of limited exposure in the muggle world and seven plus years rather isolated from the world in a magical castle and then by a magical war. "AH! METAL MAN!"

Said metal man was coming up behind Harry, apparently having been at the other end of the room which Harry now noticed was occupied by a rather large glowing white orb. As it approached him the robot continued to berate Harry in its somewhat annoying voice. "Do not touch those controls! I only just got them recalibrated and- Ai yai yai!" The robot had managed to trip over the cot still sitting in the middle of the room, ending with it sprawled out on the floor right at Harry's feet and Harry with no idea what to do next.

That decision was quickly taken out of his hands, however, as five vaguely familiar beams of energy; black, pink, blue, yellow, and red; came seemingly from nowhere and settled down on the other side of the circle of consoles before fading out, revealing five individuals standing there that had not been there before. Each of these individuals was wearing what looked like a spandex suit that was primarily one color, the same color as the energies they had appeared in, but with a diamond pattern in white across the chest and on the gloves and boots. They each wore a belt with a small octagonal device as a buckle with a golden coin in the center and a holster with what looked like a tricked out muggle firearm on their left sides. Each also wore a full helmet, but with different designs that helped differentiate them further than their unique colors already did. Other than that, a pointed once over of the group, coupled with the training he had received from Mad-Eye Moody during the war against Voldemort, let him identify three of them as male and the other two as female mostly based on how they stood, though the pink one's mini-skirt, which the yellow was strangely lacking, certainly helped as well.

Once they had fully materialized, they appeared to look at Harry, though the helmets prevented him from getting any kind of a read on them, until the robot at his feet let out a groan. "Ai yai yai…"

"Alpha!" The blue one called out, seemingly in a panic before stepping around the cot himself and moving to lift the robot off the ground while Harry stood slightly stunned.

"Alright, pal," the red guy called out in a somewhat deeper voice, pointing one finger at him as he took a slightly more aggressive stance, "what did you do to Alpha!"

Harry just stood there, staring blankly and wondering just what kind of place Death had sent him to.

Apparently his lack of response wasn't enough for the aggressive guy in red as he moved to step around the bed as well, probably to get closer to Harry if needed. "I asked you a question buddy! What did you do to him?"

Harry, still unable to bring himself to respond, was saved from having to even try to do so by the black one placing one hand on the angry one's shoulder. "Hey cool it Ja- I mean uh… Red. He's probably just in shock from meeting the Power Rangers." His voice sounded rather laid back, his tone of voice suggesting a general lack of seriousness that was supported by a slight relaxation in his stance that the others lacked.

This snapped Harry out of his stupor. "Now hang on one bloody second!" He near shouted, stepping to one side to get out of the way of the blue guy who was still helping up the robot, apparently named Alpha. "First off, mate, I didn't do a thing to the robot guy, assuming that's who you're talking about. I just got up and he came running in and tripped on his own! And Second, where the bloody hell am I, and who the bloody hell are you five?"

This caused the girl in yellow to step forward a bit, drawing Harry's attention to her. "You don't know who we are? And you've never heard of the Power Rangers?" She spoke with a slight accent, though Harry couldn't quite identify it.

Harry lifted one eyebrow, "No, I can't say I do and I can't say I have. You could say I'm not exactly from around here…"

By this point, the blue one had helped Alpha back to his feet and stepped back toward the rest of the costumed individuals. "Then perhaps you would be willing to answer a few inquiries of ours so we may more accurately ascertain your origin? Perhaps in exchange for a few of your own?"

Harry blinked. At first because the guy sounded like an intellectual, and that was before he started using big words, and then because he was hit with a sudden thought that he would have probably gotten along with Hermione really well. And then he realized that he would probably never be seeing Hermione again. Hell, she probably thought he was dead as a doornail by now, and if not for a truly screwed up twist of fate, he probably would have been.

Apparently misinterpreting his look for just general confusion, the yellow one spoke up again. "He asked if we could ask you a few questions if we answer a few of yours."

Harry blinked again. "Err… sure…" The last bit might have come out sounding like a question of his own, but Harry was still off balance and so couldn't bring himself to care.

"Okay then, let's start with something simple: introductions." The girl in pink spoke up for the first time, talking with a strange lilt to her speech that Harry also couldn't recognize.

Shaking himself, the wizard nodded. "Right, of course. My name is Harry James Potter."

The guy in the black suit nodded before stepping up, seemingly trying to cut off the red one before he could speak again. This was probably for the best since Harry could almost feel the aggression coming from him. "Cool man, it's nice to meet you. Now, for reasons we cannot exactly explain at the moment we can't really tell you our names. If you want to you can call us by our colors. Just to smooth things out a bit, ya know?"

Harry nodded with a slight smile. "Its fine, really. I can honestly say I'm no stranger to secret groups with secret identities; a long story, that. Though to be honest you guys look kinda like the types you would see on some of those Saturday morning cartoons my cousin used to watch…" Harry chuckled at the end, though he was the only one who did while the multicolored individuals before him just shifted slightly. Even Red seeming a bit self-conscious about their suits after his comment. Due to this, his laughter died off rather quickly and awkwardly, bringing about an uncomfortable silence among the six individuals, seven if you counted the robot, standing within the circle of computers.

The awkward silence was broken again, just not by anyone speaking. From behind himself, Harry heard a crackle of electricity and felt a huge rush of magical energy wash over them. He quickly turned as the other five looked up slightly, Red giving out a call of, "Zordon!" as they did.

Harry's eyes widened at the sight of a slightly blurry, green, and very much over sized bald head suspended in the formerly empty tube. The man, for the head was easily identified as such, gave a small smile at Harry's shock before directing his attention to the room as a whole. "Greetings Rangers! It is good to see you all again. And to our guest, I am happy to see that you have recovered from your encounter with Goldar and Rita."

Harry stood frozen, partially shocked by the sight of the huge head before him but more paralyzed by the enormous amount of magical power practically flowing off of it. After a moment, Harry overcame his paralysis and reacted true to form. "AH! FLOATING HEAD!"

Acting on instinct, Harry spun on his heel and tried to apparate to, well, anywhere really. In the heat of the moment he felt the risk of splinching himself would be more than acceptable if it got him away from this crazy place with its robots, strange cartoony people, and floating heads with more magic in them than half of Hogwarts. With a soft pop brought about by Moody inspired practice, Harry vanished, only to immediately reappear as he slammed up against the wall fifteen feet to his right with a loud crack as he was forcefully pulled out of his apparition jump.

"Ah bloody hell…" Harry mumbled as he climbed back to his feet, turning slowly to face the shocked people who had just watched him vanish into thin air.

"I apologize for frightening you," the head, Zordon he recalled, said with a placating look on his face. "I assure you that no one here means you any harm."

Harry's temper once again flared up. "No one means me any harm? Mate, I've been meant nothing but harm ever since I showed up in this dimension! Between Red over there jumping to conclusions, the others being generally disbelieving, the robot freaking out as soon as it saw me, and let's not forget the golden plated monkey and that pointy haired bint stealing my-"

Harry cut himself off before he said more than he should. There was no telling the consequences for revealing anything about magic to these people. Even though the floating head was overflowing with power himself, none of the others had even the slightest spark of magic within them and the robot was a robot. The last thing he wanted was this place's version of the DMLE swooping down on him and throwing him in jail. He had just gotten out, thanks.

It seemed that the "Rangers" had caught on to a few of his slips.

"'Showed up in this Dimension?'" Blue asked, one hand coming up to stroke his chin thoughtfully. "That would imply that you aren't from this one originally."

"And you said Rita and Goldar stole something from you?" Pink said, sounding rather concerned.

Harry's eyes swept across the room from his spot against the wall, wondering if he could pull off a wandless Obliviate strong enough to get all of them without frying his own brain in the process.

"Please, young mage," Zordon spoke again, instantly drawing Harry's attention at what he called him. "Calm yourself and we shall explain who we are. We are no threat to you so long as you do not follow the forces of evil. I sense that you are a kind soul who has been forced through too much hardship so your reactions are understandable, but we truly mean no harm."

Harry sighed, forcing himself to relax, mostly because he knew he had no other choice at the moment. "Alright, alright… "

"Hang on a second Zordon," Black interjected. "You said that this guy is a mage, right? As in magic? As in the same stuff Rita uses?"

"And do you really believe he is from another dimension?" Red continued.

"'He' is standing right here, thank you," Harry grumbled as he pushed away from the wall and stepped a bit closer to the center of the room. Red merely shot a look in his direction, whether it was an apologetic glance or a glare was disguised by his helmet.

"That question will take a bit of explaining Rangers, and a few questions for our guest as well, if he is willing."

"Sure," Harry shrugged, resting his arms on top of one of the consoles, careful to keep away from the buttons on the opposite side lest he set the robot off again. "I already told those guys that I didn't mind answering questions, so why not?"

"Very well," Zordon appeared to nod, although how he could do that with no neck confused Harry greatly. "I am called Zordon. A trans-dimensional being trapped in a time warp for the last ten thousand years by Rita Repulsa, the woman you encountered upon your arrival in our dimension. The cylinder that I appear before you in is a communications array designed by my assistant, Alpha 5, the robot you met when you awoke. Through this device I am able to interact with the physical plane in ways that would otherwise be prevented by my imprisonment."

Harry balked at Zordon's statement. Ten Thousand Years? How was he still alive then? The man seemed to be waiting for something and it didn't take Harry long to figure it out, "Oh, sorry. I'm Harry James Potter, and yes," he turned to nod toward the black ranger, "I can use magic, though I prefer the term 'wizard' to 'mage.'"

"In addition to this Rangers," Zordon said before any of the rangers could respond, "Harry's power comes from within himself. Unlike Rita, who channels the energy of the Morphing Grid for a great many of her spells. His magic is different from anything I have ever heard of in my existence. This by itself could lend credence to him being from another dimension even if I hadn't detected the energy coming from the dimensional rift he fell through before I contacted you earlier."

"Well…" Red said, apparently unable to continue. Another silence fell over the group, only the beeping and humming of the various computers and machines around them filling the void.

Finally two voices broke the silence at the same time as Yellow and Pink made their thoughts known.

"What kind of magic can you do then?"

"WHAT are you wearing?"

Harry looked down and saw he was still in the admittedly rough looking black and white striped prisoner's robes he had been wearing at the Ministry. He thought for a moment before shrugging. "All kinds of magic, really. And these are prison robes. Before I came here, I was a prisoner of my government."

The Rangers all tensed up. "You're a criminal?" Red asked, the edge back in his voice.

Harry sighed. "Politically perhaps... Though really I was just hated by the corrupt individuals that seized control after I overthrew the terrorist that had taken over my entire community and was leading a campaign to wipe out any and all magicals that didn't follow his ideals. I was thrown through an artifact known as the Veil of Death, and due to my unknown mastery of three other artifacts that are also associated with Death, I wasn't killed. Instead, I met the personification of Death and it opened the dimensional rift that Zordon noticed to send me here."

The Rangers, Alpha, and Zordon were silent for several moments as Harry shuffled in place a bit, slightly uncomfortable with the situation. Then, Black broke the silence again. "That sucks man…"

With a small chuckle, Harry nodded. "Yes, yes it does."

"But seriously though," Pink spoke up, "Those robe… things are nasty."

"They are for prisoners, Pink," Harry said with a smile, once more stepping out from behind the bank of computers. "The Ministry didn't really care what happened to those in their custody. But you're right, I do need a bit of a change, don't I?" Harry gave his right hand a short wave and focused on his magic and what he needed it to do. It was harder without his wand, but not quite impossible. He had Dumbledore and Moony to thank for that.

The Rangers and Alpha jerked slightly in shock while Zordon watched on in interest as Harry's clothes shifted to a much nicer outfit consisting of black pants, a white button up shirt, and a pair of trainers. At the same time, his outer robe changed to a solid black set of everyday robes that were, most importantly, much cleaner.

"What about that silvery bit?" Black asked, pointing vaguely in Harry's direction. "Why didn't you change that to?"

It was only then that Harry remembered that he was still wearing the Cloak of Invisibility over the top of his robes. It was probably a good thing that he hadn't drawn it around him more completely yet as the Rangers, mostly Red, might have reacted poorly to him randomly disappearing. Now however, he had an opportunity for a tiny prank…

"Oh, this?" Harry said with a small smirk as he reached back and grasped the silver cloak, "This is one of those Artifacts of Death I was talking about. This is the Cloak of Invisibility." Having said that, Harry whipped the cloak out and around his shoulders, causing the Rangers to gasp as he appeared to become just a floating head much like Zordon, though less green, as the fabric settled around him.

"Prodigious…" Blue gasped as he stepped forward, one arm outstretched as he felt for the cloak, inadvertently poking Harry in the chest as he did. "I can feel the fabric and Harry himself, but somehow he has been rendered completely transparent… This is absolutely fantastic!? How does it work?"

Harry chuckled uneasily. "Magic, mate. Magic." He stepped back from Blue's questing hands, clearing his throat slightly and shifting the cloak around to his back again, "The other artifact I have on me is the Resurrection Stone, which allows the wielder to bring the spirits of the dead back to the world of the living. It's not too helpful for more than a chat most times and legend says that it is a kind of torture all its own to be able to speak with but not interact with those you knew and loved in life..."

"And the third artifact you mentioned?" Zordon asked, causing Harry to turn to face him fully as Blue stepped back to stand with the other Rangers again. "What might that one be?"

Uneasily, Harry met Zordon's eyes. Could he trust this immensely powerful magical being? Could he tell them the nature of the Elder Wand? Death had said that it wouldn't work as well for anyone other than Harry himself now that all three had been collected in by one person, but that didn't mean that it wouldn't still be a prize to have for any magic user. Just ask Rita Repulsa, she had jumped him practically right out of the gate and she didn't even know anything about the wand other than that it was a powerful artifact.

Looking at Zordon though, Harry could almost feel the goodness in him. It was in the energy that he emanated, it almost lead you to trust him. And he had said that Harry's magic was completely unknown in his ten thousand years of knowledge. This suggested that either there was no Ministry to enforce a Statute of Secrecy here or else they were so far removed from its influence that it was practically a non-entity. Harry decided to take a gamble. Gryffindors charge forward after all.

"The third artifact is known as the Elder Wand. It is a magical focus crafted by Death himself and is the most powerful such focus in my old dimension. The wand itself has a rather long and bloody history as owner after owner was slain through combat, deceit, and even outright assassination in order for another to lay claim to its power. I received Mastery of it through my mentor, who taught me for seven years as my school's headmaster and then for the next few months in combat specifically before he fell in battle against the terrorist I spoke of earlier. The wand itself was taken by this terrorist, a dark wizard named Voldemort, and I won it from him when I finally ended the war. It was taken from me when I got here by the spiky haired lady I was talking about, Rita I think you said…"

"A powerful magical focus like that would have called to Rita like nothing else the moment you arrived in our dimension. If she learns how to use it, I fear we shall all find ourselves in a great deal of danger." Zordon appeared worried for a moment before his gaze snapped back up to Harry. "I thank you for sharing with us Harry; I shall be honored to do the same for you.

"As I said before, I have been trapped in this time warp for ten thousand years. Before that, I battled against Rita Repulsa and her armies as they tried to take over this and many other planets. We managed to defeat each other at nearly the same time as her trap caught me shortly after I imprisoned her and her greatest generals and assets in a space dumpster and sent it hurtling through the galaxy. Unfortunately, it recently crashed down on Earth's moon and was opened by a pair of astronauts, freeing Rita and her servants and allowing her to renew her quest to take over the planet.

"Left with little other choice, I had Alpha select a group of humans to take up the mantle of the Power Rangers to fight against evil as many other groups have done before them. Empowered with the spirits of ancient dinosaurs and the power of the Morphing Grid, this team has fought admirably and held off Rita's attacks time and time again since her release."

"You've mentioned this Morphing Grid before Zordon," Harry said after a moment, "you even compared it to my magic. What exactly is it?"

"The Morphing Grid is a techno-magical dimensional plane that exists parallel to our reality. Those with the proper ability can tap into its power to perform great works of magic, either for good or for ill. Rita is one such doer of evil works, while I have always strived to do good. The Grid does, however, have a bit of a consciousness to it. This has long been studied since the discovery of the Grid, but never truly understood. This consciousness tends to guide certain aspects of the usage of its Power, usually manifesting itself in the colors, weapons, and appearance of the various rangers I create as well as the power, form, and personality of the monsters Rita summons to do her bidding."

"Wow Zordon." Yellow said, awe in her voice. "You've never told us any of this before…"

Zordon smiled. "I would have certainly done so if you had only asked or shown any kind of interest while in my presence, Rangers. I have spent a great deal of time during my imprisonment in the time warp studying the Morphing Grid so that I may better aid any and all future Ranger teams in the use of its Power."

"I may have to set aside some time for that particular lesson Zordon." Blue said, sounding even more excited now than he had been about Harry's cloak. "This sounds like a highly interesting subject."

"And I would be happy to indulge your curiosity," Zordon smiled before his face grew serious once more, "but we have other issues to deal with first. Like what we shall be doing with Harry."

Harry was slightly taken aback at how quickly the topic had been switched back to him, but he rallied quickly. "Well," he said, "ideally I will have to get the Elder Wand back from Rita at some point. Hopefully before she figures a way to use it. You said that our magics were of two different types, but that doesn't mean that she won't be able to use the wand as a general focus to boost her power somehow…"

"Yes," Zordon nodded again. "I fear that that is exactly what she will do, Harry. We can only hope that the Rangers will be able to defeat the next challenge that is laid before them, for Rita will surely find a way to use her new prize before making her next move."

"Brilliant," Harry mumbled before speaking up. "So what do we do now?"

"For now, Harry, I ask that you stay here in the Command Center until Alpha and I can find a way to help you integrate with society. Rangers, you may return to your lives, but remain cautious. I expect we will not be waiting too long before Rita acts."

"Don't worry Zordon, we'll be ready for her." Red said, making a fist as if to illustrate his determination.

The other Rangers nodded in agreement quickly before they all moved to stand shoulder to shoulder, placing both hands on the devices on their belt buckles.

"It was nice to meet you Harry," Yellow called out just before all five of them were enveloped by a bright light of their own color which then shot up and seemingly through the ceiling.

"Well," Harry said with a sigh, "that was fun."

"Indeed," Zordon said with a chuckle. "I feel that in time they will all open up to you more. You will not be left without support here Harry."

"I appreciate that," Harry responded with a smile, truly beginning to like this guy, even if he did resemble a creepy floating head in a jar. "But, if you don't mind my asking, how exactly are you going to get me set up around here?"

Zordon smiled at Harry and then turned to the robot. Alpha 5, Harry corrected himself mentally.

"Oh no, Zordon," the robot whined. "You know I don't like hacking into government computers. It feels so dishonest… And don't even get me started on the banks! I always feel so unclean afterwards that I have to defragment my entire hard drive just to get any work done!"

"It is a necessary evil, Alpha." Zordon spoke in a firm tone, but a hint of humor danced in his eyes, "We must do what we can to help those in need if it is within our power."

Alpha let out a noise that sounded suspiciously like a sigh. "Yes Zordon. I'll get right on it…"

Harry, feeling somewhat sorry for the little guy, decided to speak up, "I appreciate what you're doing for me Alpha, and I'm sorry about the scare when I first woke up. You may not have to worry about money though." Harry reached down for the mokeskin bag on his ankle and pulled out a Galleon, "These things are made of solid gold and I have more than enough of them to last me a while. All you really need to do is help me find somewhere I can sell gold and I should be set for quite some time, and through a fully legitimate method."

Alpha turned as quickly as his wobbly gait would allow. "Solid gold?" He held out one hand. "May I?" Harry nodded and placed the Galleon in Alpha's hand which immediately closed around it. The robot then held it up in front of the visor on his saucer-like head and began turning it this way and that, examining it from all sides.

"Hmmm… Zordon, my sensors do indeed indicate that this object is made of exactly 31.103 grams of solid gold, which would sell for… Calculating… Accessing human information networks… Calculating… Approximately $378.84 at current market value. Although there is some kind of strange energy within and around it…"

"I sense it too, Alpha." Zordon responded, his eyes narrowing in concentration. "It feels similar to Harry's particular brand of magic, but perhaps… Slightly off…"

Harry, feeling slightly forgotten, decided to speak up. "Yeah, that's probably Goblin magic. You see, the Wizarding bank where I'm from is called Gringotts and it is run by the Goblins who make those coins. I would imagine there are enchantments placed on the coins to prevent damage and such, not to mention to help identify counterfeits." Harry winced, "And I just realized that these enchantments may keep me, or anyone else, from being able to melt these things down into a sellable state. I can't really go around selling people indestructible gold coins, can I?"

Zordon redirected his attention to Harry, "No, that would certainly not be a good idea and may draw undue attention to yourself. Are you able to break these enchantments?"

Harry sighed. "Well, I can probably beat them given enough time, I'm rather more powerful than the vast majority of magicals in my dimension. Though without a wand it won't be an easy task. Wandless magic, while far from impossible, is definitely not well suited for this kind of precise work. It's more… general I guess… less focused… and has many of its own drawbacks…" Harry trailed off in thought for a moment before shaking himself back into awareness. "Point is, I should be able to do it, but not without significant effort. And if I know goblins, and I can assure you of a more than passing familiarity, then it would take more heat than a blast furnace to melt that gold down while the enchantments are still working."

"Then that may have to be the solution we strive for if the protections on these coins is truly as strong as you suggest. If you will allow it, Alpha and I can run some tests on this particular coin to see if there is any way we can make your work easier."

"Sure, like I said, I have plenty more." Harry paused, "But I do feel that I have to ask… Why do you seem so intent on helping me?"

Zordon gave what must have been a sigh, though it was hard to tell seeing as he is only a floating head. "When you arrived in our dimension, it was without any malicious intent. Based on what you told us of your past you were merely doing what you had to do to survive. Rita Repulsa brought you into our conflict whether she realizes that or not. I fear we will end up needing your help in combating whatever forces she brings to bear with the power of the Elder Wand behind her. Besides that, we are among those who strive to do good in all things, and you are one who is most in need of help. It would not be right to turn you away if there was something we could do."

"So you think you may need my help later, but for now you're just one of the good guys?" Harry shrugged, "Works for me."

Alpha just stared at him for a moment before shaking his head. "Ai yai yai… Humans… I'll never figure them out." Without another word, Alpha made his way to one of the computers and began pressing buttons, seemingly at random.

Harry turned back to Zordon. "What? Was it something I said?"

Zordon merely laughed.

-MR-

AN: As far as the Galleon gold value goes, I got on the HP wiki and it said that the galleon was approximately the same size as the US Silver Eagle, so I looked up the weight for that and got 31.103 grams (1.000 troy ounces) from there I looked up the gold value for August 1993 (the month the first episode of Mighty Morphin Power Rangers was aired), which stood at $378.84 per troy ounce.

Don't forget to Review!

Tenstar12


	3. Chapter 3

Magi Ranger

By: Tenstar12

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or Power Rangers.

 **Chapter 3, In Which Things Start to Happen**

Harry groaned as he stood and stretched from his kneeling position off to one side of the Command Center. With Zordon's permission, a quick bit of teleportation courtesy of Alpha, and some wandless Transfiguration, Harry had turned a small pile of stones from the mountains outside into a richly colored wooden door and frame that he then stuck to the wall with a wandless sticking charm. After unsticking a few of his fingers, Harry had then spent the next while inscribing various runes all over the frame. A task that he had just finished, much to his satisfaction.

"What precisely is it that you are attempting, young Harry?" Zordon asked, confusion and curiosity dancing in his eyes as Harry had refused to explain his actions thus far, preferring to surprise the kindly wizard.

"That would be telling, Zordon," Harry smiled. "Besides, I'm still not completely sure this will work yet. While the theory is sound and the instructions are all up here," he tapped the side of his head for emphasis, "I've never actually had cause to try this before. Much less without a wand to help focus the energies and carve the runes as I was taught."

"Well," Alpha interrupted, shuffling closer with a strange device in hand. "The energy readings for that particular section of the wall have certainly shifted since you stood. In fact, the readings indicate there is some kind of additional space there now!"

"Most interesting, Alpha," Zordon commented before turning back to Harry. "I assume this was your intention all along?"

Harry, somewhat reassured by Alpha's analysis, nodded. "Yes, Zordon, it was. The runes I inscribed into the doorframe serve a few simple purposes. Firstly, they have expanded the small space between the door and the wall so that there should now be a moderately sized room there. The runes also put up a kind of cloaking field, we call it a Notice-Me-Not ward back home, which will prevent those who do not know about the door already from realizing that it's there without outside prompting. Finally, the runes increase the durability of the frame as a whole, preventing any unexpected damage that may cause the entire ward scheme to collapse which would be rather disastrous for anyone and anything in the room during said collapse."

"I see," Zordon nodded, an action that still befuddled Harry. "So you plan on staying in this room you have created during your time here? I must say that this will most likely be more suitable than anything else we can provide you with. Though I feel I must ask why you have chosen to hide it. There are none who can come in here other than the three of us and the Rangers."

"Precisely," Harry nodded, a somewhat grim look on his face. "While I appreciate all you are doing for me Zordon, I don't know or trust your Rangers yet. And with the way Red was acting towards me, I think I am more than justified in taking a few precautions. Just in case of course."

The floating head let out a sigh. "I suppose I can understand your caution, though I hope that in time you will come to trust and understand them."

Harry shuffled his feet a bit. "Perhaps eventually Zordon, but not for a while. I did just come out of a magical war and being wrongfully imprisoned by the very people I fought to save after all. Events like that tend to bring about a surprising amount of paranoia." Being trained by Mad Eye Moody had that effect on people too, but the reference wouldn't make any sense to Zordon so Harry didn't mention it.

"I thank you for your consideration Harry." Zordon smiled before nodding toward Harry's door. "So, should we look upon the fruits of your labor? Alpha's analysis indicates that it worked, but I would still like to see it for myself."

With a smile, Harry turned back to his project and placed one hand on the doorknob. "Sure, let's see how I did then." Without further delay, Harry opened the door to reveal an area around ten feet by ten feet with walls, floor, and ceiling of the same black as the walls in the main part of the Command Center.

"Brilliant," Harry smiled again. "Now all I'll have to do is transfigure a few more things, probably a bed and a table… and perhaps a trunk or a dresser, and I'll be all set."

"Indeed," Zordon agreed. "That is certainly impressive for eighteen hours of work. It's like nothing I've ever seen done before. Truly your magic is a thing of wonder, Harry."

Harry had stopped listening shortly after Zordon started speaking. "Hang on a second," Harry turned back from what would become his room in the Command Center. "Did you say eighteen hours? I've been working on this for eighteen hours?" Harry's stomach chose that moment to let out a loud protest at its empty state accompanied by a jolt of pain that brought the wizard's hands across his abdomen. "Oh dear Merlin… I can't believe it just hit me how hungry I am…"

Zordon looked slightly taken aback, "My apologies Harry. I had not considered your need to eat and believed you were aware of the time that had passed."

Harry shook his head, standing straight again once the initial pain had faded. "It's not really your fault. I suppose I just got carried away in my work and lost track of time… What time is it anyway? And I suppose I should ask the date as well."

"It is currently slightly after noon on Saturday, August the fourteenth in the year 1993."

Harry's eyes widened. Not only had he traveled to a different dimension, but apparently he had traveled back in time nearly five years. As Harry calmed himself he realized that that didn't really matter though. With the way things were looking, magic as he knew it didn't exist in this dimension. So there was fairly little possibility that his time travel would mean much of anything substantial besides shock value. He supposed he must look fairly grown for someone who shouldn't be older than thirteen.

Harry's musing was once again interrupted by his stomach. "Well, I appreciate the information Zordon, but I don't suppose I could trouble you or Alpha for a sandwich or something could I?"

-MR-

As it turned out, there was absolutely nothing edible in the Command Center. What with Alpha being a robot and Zordon being a trans-dimensional being caught in a time warp and therefore beyond the need for physical sustenance, and that was besides the fact that he wasn't physically in the Command Center to being with, there had never been a need to keep food around. Even after the current crop of Power Rangers had been brought into service the team hadn't spent any significant amount of time there and so there hadn't been cause for a trip to the grocery.

In the end they had decided that the only two options available were to contact the Rangers and ask one of them to bring something or for Harry to get something himself. Since Harry didn't exactly know or trust the Rangers as of yet, not to mention the sheer level of awkwardness involved in the situation, off it was to Angel Grove, California.

So it was that Harry found himself materializing in a flash of light in a somewhat secluded copse of trees in the middle of Angel Grove Park. The first thing Harry did was transfigure his outer robe into something slightly more muggle, in this case a dark colored lightweight jacket to wear over his t-shirt, before stepping out of the trees, tucking the Cloak of Invisibility into a pocket as he did.

Almost immediately Harry's eyes and ears were assaulted by the overbearing colors and sounds of the carnival that was set up in a large open area in the heart of the park. He couldn't help but smile at the sights and sounds of the rides and games accompanied by the smiles and laughter of the citizens of Angel Grove enjoying their weekend outing.

Once more, Harry's stomach let him know of its unhappiness. "Alright, alright," Harry murmured. "Let's see about getting something to eat. Though I doubt carnival food is the healthiest thing around, it will certainly do for now. And it can't possibly be worse than the prison rations I was getting before my trip through the Veil… But how to go about it…"

With a moment of focus, Harry cast a wandless summoning charm specifically aiming to gather loose and lost change and money from around the park, only realizing his minor mistake when he was pelted with numerous small metal coins mere moments later. Once the barrage ended, Harry looked at the ground around him and picked up the few paper bills that were there, struggling to remember what little he had learned about American money in his lifetime, before setting off with just over fifteen dollars in cash and on a mission for food.

A short while later, with a hotdog in his belly and sipping on a soda, Harry found himself wandering the carnival and enjoying the sights. From what he had been able to gather, the entire thing had been set up practically overnight and everything from admission to the rides and various performances from the numerous clowns was free. Everything that is, except for the food. Somehow Harry felt that he had gotten cheated when he spent nearly all his money on a single hotdog and his drink.

As he walked past a merry-go-round, his internal musings on the insanity of carnival food were interrupted by a female voice. "Sylvia!" Harry's head turned to his right in time to see a teenage girl with Asian features, medium length dark hair, and dressed in a yellow shirt with a tan vest and shorts jog past while looking around frantically. "Sylvia, where are you?!"

Harry immediately felt the resurgence of what Hermione had always called his "saving people thing" and made his way over to the distressed girl. "Excuse me, miss" he said, smiling slightly when she whipped her head around to face him, her eyes widening slightly when she caught sight of him. "Is everything alright, miss?"

Whatever had caught the girl off guard was quickly overcome with a small shake of her head. "I'm looking for my younger cousin. She wandered off with one of the clowns. I think his name was Pineapple, and I can't find either of them anywhere!"

"Well, that's no good…" Harry mused before finishing his drink and tossing the empty cup in a nearby trash can. "What does she look like, maybe I can help find her."

After only a moment of hesitation, the girl gave a quick description of her cousin, as well as the clown she had been with, and the two set off in opposite directions with the intention of meeting back at the merry-go-round in fifteen minutes to regroup.

After ten minutes of searching with no sign of the girl or the specific clown, Harry could feel his unease growing. The entire situation was setting off his keenly honed sense of danger. The unexpected arrival of the carnival. The fact that nearly everything was free but nobody knew who was funding it. The overabundance of clowns. Especially the clowns. Throw in a missing child and something wasn't quite adding up.

When the fifteen minutes passed, Harry made his way back to the merry-go-round only to see no sign of the girl in yellow. Settling in to wait, Harry only felt his unease grow as he caught sight of a clown working his way through the crowd. Oh sure, he looked just like any other of the numerous clowns at this particular carnival, but something didn't quite feel right about any of them. Maybe it was the way they moved with slightly jerky steps and partially hunched over. Perhaps it was the way their faces always seemed to be in a perpetual frown. Whatever it was, these clowns were seriously setting Harry on edge, but the other carnival goers seemed none the wiser.

It wasn't much longer before Harry caught a flash of movement out of the corner of his eye and caught sight of the girl he had been waiting for, but she was running toward the far side of the carnival and appeared to be carrying some kind of cardboard cutout. Curiosity filling him once more, Harry moved quickly to catch up, but not so close as to be easily noticed. Something was definitely wrong with this place.

The girl was heading straight for one of the rides, this one a giant spinning swing set, before changing course slightly and running up to a group of four people just getting off of it. One was a taller, muscular teen wearing a pair of red track pants and a red tank top. The next was a girl slightly shorter than the one in yellow wearing blue jeans and a striped pink shirt. Then there was an African American teen wearing black pants and a black and yellow striped shirt. Finally, there was a teen with glasses wearing blue coveralls over a blue and white striped shirt.

The girl in yellow brought the cutout to the four, who must have been friends of hers, and said something to them, apparently in distress, which caused them all to tense up. After a few moments of talking amongst themselves, the girl in yellow ran off with the cutout again and the other four moved over to where one of the carnival workers was announcing some of the upcoming attractions. Without a moment's hesitation, the teen in red took the megaphone the worker had been using and began his own announcement. "Attention everyone! Get out! Rita's attacking the park! It's a trap!"

If the actions of the teen wasn't enough to confuse Harry, the fact that every single person in the carnival immediately began running out of the park completely threw him for a loop. If someone had done this back home, they would have been laughed at and the people would have gone about their day. Most times it took live spellfire before the average Diagon alley shopper would even take notice of a confrontation going on.

As Harry watched, crouching slightly behind a horse on yet another merry-go-round to help avoid being noticed, the teen gave the worker his megaphone back, at which point the man joined the crowd running out of the park, before he and his three friends started waving and encouraging the other carnival patrons as they fled. This was yet another strange occurrence that nobody seemed to object to. Why weren't these four leaving too?

And then Harry heard the one in blue speak. "Bipedally ambulate to the nearest convenient outlet!"

Oh good grief. Why hadn't he figured it out sooner? The fact that there were five of them. They each wore their signature colors: Yellow, Red, Pink, Black, and Blue. They weren't joining the crowd in running from the danger they had just announced. When the one in blue spoke he used words big enough to cause Harry's brain to overload and have to reboot... Those five had to be the Power Rangers!

But how? They looked to be younger than Harry himself. What was Zordon playing at, bringing kids into his war? He really couldn't say much on the topic truthfully since Dumbledore had done much the same thing to Harry and his friends, but…

It was definitely something that he would have to bring up with him once he returned to the Command Center.

Before Harry realized it, the entire crowd, save for the four teens that Harry believed to be the Power Rangers, had left the park, making it more than obvious when the numerous clowns began to gather around them. Still too far away to hear what they were talking about, Harry could only watch as, in a flash of light, all but one of the clowns changed. Their once bright and colorful suits changed to a dark grey with a few black streaks across them and their faces and hands became disfigured and heavily wrinkled with their entire facial structure set in a deep scowl. Though the effect was truly ruined by the fact that several of them still wore the brightly colored ruffs they had had on in their clown disguises.

As Harry watched, the grey skinned figures closed in around the four teens before Blue was led away by the one clown that stayed looking like a normal clown, if a bit more creepy than the others had been. As the three remaining teens fought against the approaching creatures, Harry moved off toward where Blue had disappeared after the one remaining clown. He had a feeling that that one was the source of all the weirdness going on.

-MR-

"Now, if I were a creepy clown guy, where would I be?" Harry mused to himself. He had lost track of Blue and the clown fairly quickly, though that wasn't surprising since he was trying to stay hidden at the time which severely limited his mobility. At this point, he was simply wandering around back toward the center of the carnival, hoping to catch sight of something.

"Hey!" a voice shouted, and Harry turned quickly to find himself facing another clown, though not the one that Blue had been following. "What are you doing here?"

"Hey there mate." Harry responded, keeping himself prepared in case this clown ended up being like all the others in this cursed carnival. "I was just wondering where everyone went. I mean I stepped into the loo for one minute and now the place is empty."

The clown's eyes narrowed and he stepped toward Harry. "I think you need to get out of here kid, before something bad ends up happening to you."

Harry scowled slightly. "You know mate, if I didn't know any better I'd say that was a threat."

"You'd be right about that." the clown said before he was engulfed in a flash of light, revealing him to be yet another of the grey skinned beings that all the rest of the clowns had been. This time, Harry was close enough to hear the constant, high pitched mumbling noise it was making.

"What in the name of Merlin's ghost are you?" Harry asked, back-stepping a bit.

The figure only crouched down and continued to advance, his arms held up threateningly.

"Look mate," Harry said, still backing up as he brought his magic to the surface, prepared to cast if needed. "I don't want to have to hurt you, but I will if I must. Believe me, you don't want any of what I can do, so why don't you just go rejoin the rest of your buddies fighting those teens on the other side of the park, eh?" This was apparently the wrong thing to say as the creature perked his head up before his perma-scowl seemed to deepen and he lunged forward, grabbing Harry by the shoulders before he could react and hurling him through the air to crash into a trash barrel more than fifteen feet away.

"Oh you like jokes then, is that it?" Harry growled as he climbed back to his feet. "I suppose that makes sense, seeing as you were dressed as a clown and all. Well, why don't you try this on for size? _Tarantallegra!_ " Harry pointed at the creature allowing the bolt of off-white magical energy to emerge from his fingertip and wash over his target, immediately showing its effect as the being's legs began jerking around uncontrollably causing it to fall over almost instantly.

"Well," Harry said as he clenched his hand to fight off his own rapidly flexing muscles, "it's good to see you guys are still vulnerable to my magic. That's something at least."

Just as Harry was about to leave the incapacitated former clown, he heard another shout from behind him. "Hey, are you alright?" Turning, Harry caught sight of Blue jogging up to him, unable to keep his eyes away from the form jerking on the ground beyond Harry. "What happened to that putty?"

"Putty?" Harry asked, confused, "You mean they grey skinned clown guy? They're called putties?"

"Of course." the boy answered, adjusting his glasses as he continued watching the writhing putty. "They're basically the front line troops for Rita Repulsa, the evil sorceress who has been attacking Angel Grove for a while now. I guess you're new to town then?"

Oh, Harry thought, so that's the game he wants to play. Out loud, Harry answered, "Something like that. I've certainly never seen anything like these guys before, that's for sure."

Blue looked slightly uncertain for a moment, glancing rapidly between the incapacitated putty and Harry. "So… do you know what caused the putty's current condition?"

Harry raised one eyebrow before crossing his arms. "I might… Do you want to explain why you and your friends didn't run with the rest of the crowd after you told everyone that this place was a trap? Or would you rather keep on pretending that neither of us knows who the other is?"

Blue seemed to slump slightly. "I should have known that you would have figured it out eventually. Though I hadn't believed that you would have ascertained our identities as quickly as you did."

Harry blinked for a moment, mentally working through the statement before responding, "Yeah, it wasn't too hard to figure out when all the oddities were put together, though if I hadn't already met you guys in costume I might not have guessed so easily. It was actually your… ah… unique speech patterns that really tipped me off. You have a… very developed vocabulary and it's rather memorable."

The teen in blue just blushed awkwardly before holding out his hand. "I suppose reintroductions are in order. My name is Billy Cranston, secretly the Blue Mighty Morphin Power Ranger."

Harry chuckled before taking Billy's hand and giving it a firm shake. "And I am Harry James Potter, Wizard from another dimension. And yes, I did use my magic on the putty over there. Honestly I was just glad it worked, I was more than a little afraid that my spells would be less than effective on them seeing as they are affiliated with another magic user."

Billy nodded, stroking his chin as he appeared deep in thought before he jumped. "OH NO! I have to get back to the others! I have to tell them about the clown I was following. It has some kind of powder that turns people into cardboard cutouts! I have to warn them!" And without another word, Billy took off running back toward where the other three had been left to fight off the putties.

With a sigh at Billy's impulsiveness, Harry took off after him, once more trying to stay unnoticed, but with a feeling deep in his gut that he was going to have to get involved in a rather large way fairly soon.

-MR—

Let me know what you think! Don't forget to Review!

Tenstar12


	4. Chapter 4

Magi Ranger

By: Tenstar12

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or Power Rangers.

 **Chapter 4, In Which Harry Receives a Crash Course in Monster Battling, Power Ranger Style!**

It didn't take long for Billy to find the rest of the Rangers who had dealt with their share of the putties by this time. It took even less time for the four to track down the clown with the magical cardboard dust, finding him outside the carnival area and in the main part of the park.

"You're going down, clown!" Red announced as the four ran up on the clown.

"No more clowning around…" he said as he sank to the ground with a psychotic laugh before melting into a puddle of goo that quickly reformed into some kind of strange plant looking monster. It had two black and red tentacle like arms, stood on a large mass of tangled looking vines, and had no readily apparent face. Instead, there were several yellow tentacles sprouting out of a large red flower that was perched atop its rounded leafy green body.

Harry was once more struck by the oddness of the situation and a passing thought left him wondering if he would ever have a normal day again as the plant creature continued to laugh in a deeper voice than before.

"Man," Black said, pointing toward the monster. "That's one big pineapple."

Harry slowly shook his head in exasperation. In what way exactly did that thing resemble a pineapple?

"It's Morphin' Time guys!" Red announced before, as one, all four reached behind their backs and pulled out the same octagonal devices Harry had seen on their belts in the Command Center.

"MASTODON!" "PTERODACTYL!" "TRICERATOPS!" "TYRANNOSAURUS!"

In a bright flash of light the four teens were once more clothed in the skin tight suits that Harry had first met them in and immediately charged the "Pineapple" monster as Harry watched from behind some trees a short distance away. Before they could reach it, however, Harry caught sight of the golden armored monkey creature that Zordon and the Rangers had called Goldar, along with two more beings. One was tall and very skinny and looked like some kind of part monkey creature with dark blue fur all over its body while the other was just the opposite, being rather short and round with light blue skin and a heavily protruding lower jaw. Much to Harry's confusion, these two settled down on a bench and seemed to be eagerly anticipating the upcoming battle if their cheers were anything to go by.

As Harry looked on, the four Rangers were intercepted by a horde of putties which they laid into with ease. Red was delivering strong, solid blows that often sent the putties flying with a metallic clang that seemed to ring out each time one of them was hit. Billy was struggling slightly more with them, but it seemed to be more about form than anything else. He appeared to be using a fighting style similar to Red's, just less refined. Pink was fighting off her share of the putties with a style that mostly consisted of flips and quick strikes and throws while Black was almost dancing around his opponents, often jumping and twisting into blows that sent the grey skinned beings to the ground.

While this melee was going on, Goldar suddenly perked up. "AH! It seems as if the Rangers have brought along a little friend!" Before Harry could react, Goldar jumped through the air and landed next to the tree that Harry had crouched behind.

Looking up slowly, Harry couldn't help but swallow at the sight of the large simian glaring down at him. "How's it going there mate? Goldar, right? Haven't seen you in a bit. How's the old lady?"

"Mageling!" Goldar roared before swinging his sword at Harry, a swipe that he barely ducked under, leaving the nearby tree to take the blow which cleaved it in two.

"Now that wasn't very nice," Harry said as he backpedaled, once more calling up his magic. "You could have hurt me you know."

"You have no business here, Mageling, but as long as you're here I may as well finish what I started when we last met!" Goldar brandished his sword as he stomped toward the rapidly retreating Harry.

Just as Harry was about to start casting, Goldar was struck by a blast of energy, causing sparks to fly off of him and send him falling to the side. Harry glanced over in the direction the blast came from and saw Billy running toward him with his blaster in hand. "Are you alright Harry?"

"Yeah," Harry said, pausing to catch his breath as the other Rangers joined them having driven the putties off. "I get the distinct impression that Goldar doesn't like me though."

"That's because I hate unfinished business!" Goldar roared as he climbed back to his feet.

The four rangers immediately formed up between Harry and Goldar. "If you want him you'll have to get through us Goldar!" Red shouted, drawing his own blaster and converting it to a short blade like weapon, an action the other three quickly copied before they all charged toward the golden monkey.

Red charged in first, swinging his blade at Goldar to no avail as the surprisingly agile simian spun to the side and struck out with his own weapon, catching the ranger across his chest, leaving a scorch mark on his suit and sending off a shower of sparks. Black followed him in, only to have his own weapon parried and get knocked to the ground in another burst of sparks for his effort. Billy and Pink had no better luck, the two rangers getting taken down easily in a quick pair of strikes from Goldar and still leaving the monster with enough time to spin around and knock Red away again with one final stroke sending him rolling across the ground where the other three helped him up.

Harry quickly ran over to the Rangers as Goldar prepared to step in to finish them, only to be cut off as the pineapple monster shuffled over with the two spectator creatures that had arrived with Goldar. "Wait!" it shouted. "Don't finish them yet, these pathetic Power Pups are mine!"

The monster began laughing again as the vines on its head started twitching and a wind picked up from behind it, blowing the pollen the vines were emitting toward Harry and the Rangers. "Now to make cardboard out of the lot of you!" the monster taunted with a laugh. "Don't worry, it won't hurt a bit, but it might hurt a lot!"

Harry could feel the magic in the pollen and could only watch as the rangers began coughing and stumbling as if disoriented. Harry however had absolutely no reaction to it at all. Before he could ponder this at length, the pollen shower stopped and Harry noticed that Goldar and the other two were sneezing from the pollen as well. "Go away, fools!" the plant ordered. "Their suits are protecting them from my magic and I can't increase the power without catching you in the spell as well. Be gone so I may do my duty for Empress Rita!" Without another word, Goldar and the other two disappeared, presumably back to Rita's side, and the Pineapple monster once more shifted its attention toward the Rangers. "Now you shall feel the full force of my power. My Empress gifted me with stronger magic than ever before. There is nothing you can do to stop me, the mighty Pinoctopus!"

"Harry," Billy called as he and the other Rangers recovered and brandished their weapons once more. "You shouldn't be here, you could get hurt."

"Bil- Uh… Blue, what are…" Black started before Harry cut him off.

"Look, no time for this now, but I know who you guys are. Having seen you in costume before and seeing your reaction or lack thereof to the threat in the carnival made it rather easy to figure out. I already talked to Billy, but for now we have something to take care of. This guy's attack may not have turned you to cardboard like I assume he did to Yellow's cousin, but it still affected you. I on the other hand felt nothing at all. I think my own magic is counteracting his, but from the way it sounds Rita has already found a way to enhance her monsters with the Elder Wand. Like it or not, you guys need my help."

"If you're done wasting my time…" the Pinoctopus flung his arms forward, sending two vines flying toward Harry and the Rangers. Again, before Harry could cast anything, Pink jumped in front of him, blocking his line of sight and leading to her taking the blow that he could have easily shielded.

"Bloody Hell!" Harry shouted as Pink was flung back into him, sending the two of them to the ground in a heap as the other three charged toward the monster that was now once more releasing clouds of its pollen.

"Look Harry," Pink said with a short scoff as she slowly climbed off him and to her feet. "I know you want to help, but changing your clothes around isn't going to help us beat this guy." Without giving Harry time to respond she turned and charged toward the battle, attempting to aid her teammates against the Pinoctopus, though with the pollen weakening them by the second, none of them were making much headway.

"Oh for the love of Merlin," Harry mumbled as he stood again, dusting off the back of his pants as he did so. "It's not like that's the only thing I can do… But of course they don't know that… I guess I'll just have to give a demonstration… This is gonna freaking hurt…"

However, just as Harry was about to launch his own magical assault on the Pinoctopus, the monster had apparently decided it was done playing around with the Rangers. With a ferocious roar that still trailed off into demented laughter the monster knocked them all back before wrapping them in his vines and bundling them all together between Harry and himself. "And now, puny Rangers, feel the power of the mighty Pinoctopus!" There was a flash of light and a surge of magical energy traveling down the monster's entangling vines and into and around the Rangers followed by a shockwave that knocked Harry to the ground again.

Shaking his head in an attempt to clear it he sat up and was almost immediately knocked to the ground once more, though this time it was more from shock as he was struck with four flying cardboard cutouts that had once been the Black, Pink, Blue, and Red Power Rangers. Shifting the four off of him, Harry stood once more, looking on with shock as the Pinoctopus monster laughed and reveled in his apparent victory over the Power Rangers.

"I've won!" it cheered, still laughing the entire time. "With four of the Rangers down there is no chance of the fifth stopping me! Once she's taken care of, Empress Rita will rule the Earth!"

Harry however, had had enough. His temper was building, both through being disregarded by the freak of nature before him and in righteous fury derived from his "saving people thing" working on overdrive. Here was a being that thought he could take over the world? Not while Harry James Potter was around!

"You've not won just yet you bloody fruitcake." Harry taunted as he stepped closer, putting himself between the monster and the Ranger cutouts.

The Pincotopus froze, its laughter stopping before it turned toward Harry for a moment, apparently staring… and then its laughter returned, redoubled beyond its previous levels. "You think you can stop me? What can a puny human like you do against one of Rita's finest?"

Harry's anger now bled over, his magic beginning to whip around him as it rode the waves of his temper, causing a strong wind to flow across the park, whipping Harry's jacket and the monster's loose tentacles on its head uncontrollably. "THAT IS IT!" Harry shouted. "Ever since I showed up in this bloody dimension I've been assaulted, mugged, threatened, disbelieved, underestimated, and even ripped off by a bloody carnival food vendor! I! HAVE! HAD IT!"

Momentarily lost in his rage, Harry flung his left arm forward, sending an arc of pure magic known as a Levin Bolt flying at the stunned monster. Unable to react in time, the Pinoctopus was sent spinning though the air and crashing to the ground. Sparks went flying off of it as Harry kept the attack going, the stream of energy raking across the monster and leaving scorch marks in its wake.

Finally, after several seconds, a panting Harry let his attack die off. Keeping his eyes on the plant monster where it lay some twenty feet ahead of him. When the monster started shifting, Harry's eyes narrowed and he prepared another attack. He was completely unprepared, however, for the monster to melt into goo just like it had when it first transformed from its clown form only to reform instantly on its feet. "You have some pretty good moves after all, but you're still no match for me." The monster then brought its tentacle arms up to the base of its flower before flinging them out to the sides, firing multiple small pink bolts of energy at Harry in the process.

Reacting on instinct from his own war, Harry threw up a Protego shield, only to have to reinforce it immediately as the barrage attack hammered his shield almost beyond its ability to resist.

"HA!" the monster taunted as it continued its energy barrage. "It looks like I've got you on the ropes now human! You may have some power on the offense but it's nothing compared to what I can dish out! Prepare to DIE!" The Pinoctopus's victory laugh was cut off by an explosion of sparks coming off of it in response to a blast of energy coming from the side.

"Not so fast Pinapple head!" the Yellow Ranger shouted, brandishing her blaster as she ran up to stand next to a panting Harry as he dropped his shield.

"Thanks for the assist Yellow," Harry gasped, "I don't suppose you managed to find a way to cure your cousin did you?"

"How did you…" Yellow started before shaking her head, "Never mind, it's not important. Yes, Alpha figured out a way to fix Pineapple's curse. All you have to do is add water and they turn back to normal."

Harry stared at her for a moment. "Just add water and instant Power Ranger, huh? Alright then. _Aguamenti!_ " The last was said as he pointed over his right shoulder, causing a shower of water to shoot out of his finger and rain down on the four Power Ranger cutouts behind him.

In a brief flash of light, the four Power Ranger Cutouts piled up behind him turned into an awkwardly stacked pile of costumed heroes who immediately began groaning as they struggled to stand. Yellow, in a show of concern for her friends, holstered her blaster and ran to help them up while Harry kept his eyes on the Pinoctopus monster.

Once the monster noticed the recovered Rangers as they stood, his fury erupted. "NO! How did you break my spell?!"

Harry scoffed. "Look mate, all we had to do was get them wet. It's not like water is in short supply around here. And since I can conjure it almost at will… Well, it wasn't any hardship."

The Pinoctopus let out a shout of rage. "GAAAH! I'LL FIX YOU!" Without any further warning, the monster let fly another of its vines toward Harry. Yet once more before Harry could react, one of the Rangers stepped in front of him.

This time, Red moved into position, though he was carrying a red hilted long sword that he used to block the path of the vine before slicing it off, leaving a section a few feet long lying on the ground before him. "Not this time, pineapple face!" Red shouted as the rest of the Rangers formed up around him. "We're taking you down now!"

The monster merely started laughing anew. "I already beat you Power Geeks once and I can do it again!"

Suddenly, Harry felt an upsurge of magical energy coming from… above? "Guys…" Harry said, looking up where he could now see a tiny red glint heading toward them. "We may have a bit of an issue… I feel some kind of powerful magic coming this way…"

The Rangers looked up and caught sight of the red light just as it streaked down and landed a few feet from the Pincotopus. The bright light faded revealing the scepter that Harry had seen Rita with sticking out of the ground, a soft glow still coming from the red gem within the circle at the top. He also saw the Elder Wand had been fused with the staff, bisecting the circle alongside the gem and sticking a few inches out of the top end.

Before Harry could even make a move to try and reclaim his wand the gem let out another flash of light before it sank a few inches more into the ground, letting off streams of red magical energy that danced along the earth around it, opening a fissure and releasing a huge cloud of steam that then engulfed the Pinoctopus, hiding him from sight for a few moments. The effects of the magical light show were immediately made apparent as Harry could only watch in stunned helplessness as the giant plant got even more giant, topping out at nearly ten stories tall before it started laughing again as it stomped off out of the immediate area, heading toward the main part of the city of Angel Grove.

"Ah…" Harry found himself at a loss for words. "You know… I don't think I have anything that can help against that… not without a wand anyway…" A hopeful glance showed that Rita's scepter, and the Elder wand with it, had vanished, presumably magically returned to its owner, causing Harry to let out a soft curse.

"No worries, Harry," Black said, placing a comforting hand on his shoulder. "We're old hands at this part of the game."

"That's right! Let's do it guys!" Red shouted again, stepping to the front of the group that Black quickly rejoined before they all threw their right arms into the air in perfect synchronization. "WE NEED DINOZORD POWER, NOW!"

Harry could only watch in stunned silence as five gigantic robots, one for each Ranger and in their unique colors, stomped, flew, and rolled into the area. His amazement only increased when the five Rangers somehow leapt into the air and flew to their respective robots. The Red Ranger landing on a red tyrannosaurus that was nearly the same height as the Pinoctopus had become. The Yellow Ranger landed on a yellow cat like robot with long fangs coming from its upper jaw that only stood thirty or so feet tall. Billy, landed on top of a Blue triceratops that stood at a similar height to the yellow robot. The Black Ranger landed on an elephant looking robot that also matched his color while the Pink Ranger was on a flying robot of some kind that appeared to have a beak and wings, but it was otherwise rather unidentifiable.

The dimensionally displaced wizard could only watch as the Rangers dropped down into what must have been the cockpits for their respective giant battle machines and the five robots sprang to life. The triceratops then rolled up and launched its two longer horns at the monster while the tyrannosaurus distracted it, revealing chains attached to the bases that it used to entangle the Pinoctopus much like it had done to the Rangers with its tentacle vines. While the monster was trapped, the black robot stomped up and raised its trunk firing out a stream of icy cold air that entrapped the giant plant in ice.

Then the machines combined together.

The tyrannosaurus's legs folded up and it connected to the backs of the blue and yellow robots while the elephant-like one split in half, revealing what looked like two cannons, and slid up to attach to the back of the red machine with the elephant's head resting on its chest below the tyrannosaurus head. Finally, the pink robot flew down and attached itself to the back of the contraption, above the black one but behind the head of the red robot which its comparatively small, beaked head stuck out above.

The resulting conglomeration of colors and dinosaur parts rolled forward like a tank, moving to face the frozen monster before the two cannons lit up as it opened fire, sending showers of sparks and ice crystals flying from the Pinoctopus as it screamed in rage and pain.

Then the machine began changing again.

This time, it seemed to stand up. The heads of the blue and yellow robots folding in such a way as to resemble feet with the rest of their bodies acting as the legs. The ends of the cannons from the elephant robot flipped around to reveal two mechanical hands. The elephant head seemed to disappear entirely. The pink bird thing took flight again, only to spin around, the beaked head and wings tucking into its body, and attach itself to the chest of the now more humanoid machine, covering up the head of the tyrannosaurus that had folded down to the chest as well, revealing a much more humanoid head to go with the rest of the body that then gained a pair of horns as they folded around from the back to match the one already on the top. Its eyes flashed brightly as it finally stood completely erect and took a fighting stance, facing the slowly recovering Pinoctopus.

The monster was struggling to free itself from the remaining ice during this entire time, even though the transformation itself only took ten to fifteen seconds in all, but was still mostly immobile when the mechanized warrior made its move. With another flash of its eyes and seemingly pointless gesticulation of its arms as it brought them down to its sides, electricity built up on the two horns on the sides of its head before arcing up to the center horn. From there, a powerful burst of energy shot out, arcing across the ground and toward the entrapped monster. When it hit, the monster screamed once more in agony before it slowly disintegrated into a shower of yellow motes of light, leaving the Power Rangers' machine the sole gigantic entity standing.

Harry stood there for a moment more in stunned silence. Well, at least the Rangers had been right about having the giant monster part of things under control. Without a wand or some other kind of focus there was really nothing he could have done about something that size without hurting himself more than the monster. And chances were it would be a while before he could get his hands on the Elder Wand again…

He slowly found his eyes drawn to the discarded section of the Pinoctopus's tentacle that Red had severed before everything got huge. The monster had said that Rita gifted it with more magic than ever before. That implied that the Elder wand had been used to increase the monster's strength and such. That being the case, then the excess magic would be more attuned to Harry's own brand of energies and some of that magic might linger in any severed parts… Which was also the case in components used in crafting wands…

Harry had been taught quite a bit by Mad Eye Moody during the last few months of the war. The man's view of always maintaining constant vigilance (and regularly shouting that same phrase) had led him to teach Harry many esoteric things that he felt may one day come in handy. The runes for his hidden room in the Command Center were one of those lessons… The skills to craft a rudimentary magical focus in an emergency was another…

With these thoughts in mind, Harry stumbled over to the severed vine and knelt down to pick it up… Only to immediately collapse onto his face as his legs finally gave out on him through a combination of shock, adrenaline wearing off, and his body's protests over the burns on his left hand that his emotion fueled casting of a Levin Bolt had caused.

Gathering himself and fighting to stay awake, Harry managed to gather the short section of vine and coil it up in one of his jacket pockets before he lost himself to oblivion. The sight of the Rangers running up to him just as his eyes fell shut was his last before losing consciousness.

-MR-

Harry woke all at once, not knowing where he was for a moment before he recognized the somewhat familiar black walls and ceiling accompanied by the beeps of the various consoles around the Command Center. After a moment more, he found himself once more lying on the fancy cot he had been on when he first woke the day before. A stiffness in his left hand proved to be the result of bandages wrapped around it to help protect the burns left there by his wandless magic attack.

Harry slowly pulled himself up, swinging his feet off the cot to find himself facing the backs of the Power Rangers, still in costume. Their attention was apparently focused on something out of his line of sight, and whatever it was had shocked them into silence if their stances were anything to go by. Harry glanced over to Zordon who merely nodded toward the Rangers, or more specifically whatever had their attention, saying nothing. Alpha just continued with whatever work he was doing on the computer consoles. With a shrug, Harry heaved himself up and off the cot before half stumbling off to one side so he could get a look at whatever the Rangers were watching.

He found them staring at the glowing white orb he had noticed when he first woke up the day before, however the orb was no longer solid white. From within the depths of the orb, a series of images were playing, particularly images of Harry himself and his dealings with the putty-clown and his short fight with the Pinoctopus before Yellow had arrived. It showed the same set of images from multiple directions before finally fading back to the solid white Harry had first seen, leaving the Rangers to continue to stare unmoving as they processed what they had been watching.

After a minute or so of silence, one of them spoke. "I… I can't believe it…" Pink said, awe clear in her voice.

"Neither can I," Harry responded, making them all jump as they finally realized he was not only awake but standing right near them. Ignoring the Rangers for the moment, he turned to face Zordon. "Were you recording the entire fight? And how did you get some of those camera angles? I certainly didn't see anyone there…"

Zordon chuckled for a moment before he smiled at Harry. "The orb you see there is called the Viewing Globe. It is yet another device that is used to access the time warp that I am trapped within. Through this device and by manipulating the forces of my time warp prison, I can allow those of you in the Command Center to view any location or event that is taking place at the present time or in the recent past. I can even allow limited glimpses of the future if I am willing to expend a large amount of my strength to do so. I used the Viewing Globe to show the Rangers your short fight against the putty in the carnival and against the Pinoctopus while they were trapped by the monster's spell."

Pink stepped forward hesitantly. "Uh… Harry? I just wanted to apologize for being rude earlier. I had no idea that you were capable of… Well… That!" She gestured aimlessly at the globe behind her.

Harry just raised an eyebrow. "Did you guys all honestly think that I would be so eager to help you out if all I could do was change my clothes and turn invisible with my cloak? And did you also miss that part where I mentioned being involved in a magical war? And that I was the one to personally take out the terrorist leading the other side? Yes, I know how to fight with my magic."

Harry ran his eyes across the group, wishing to himself that they weren't wearing the helmets so he could meet their eyes. "Now don't think that I don't appreciate what you did for me in the battle, Pink. While I'm certain I could have protected myself from that vine attack I'm thankful that you were looking out for me. I just want you to know that I'm not completely incapable of handling myself in battle, wand or no. I know better than to let a little misunderstanding like this get in the way of things when we have a constant battle on our hands though. Lives can be lost that way. Quite easily in my experience." Harry's eyes clouded over briefly as the ghosts of his past washed over him. The others in the command center saw this, though only Zordon and perhaps Alpha recognized it for exactly what it was.

There was silence again in the command center before Yellow lifted her hands to the side of her helmet. With a quick snapping sound, the helmet opened vertically along the sides of her head and she lifted it off.

"What are you doing!?" Red almost demanded as Yellow's helmet was removed to reveal the dark haired Asian girl Harry had seen earlier in the carnival.

She was quick to fire back at him, her frustration clear on her face. "He already admitted he knows who we are and Zordon and Billy confirmed it. There's no point in hiding anything now. Besides, if we're going to be working together against Rita and her forces it would be good if he could recognize us out of morph if necessary. How can we expect him to trust and work with us if we don't do the same for him?"

After waiting for Red to make a response and getting nothing, Yellow turned to Harry, stepped up and offered him her hand. "My name is Trini Kwan, Yellow Ranger and pilot of the Saber-Tooth Tiger Dinozord."

Harry happily shook her hand. "It's nice to meet you Trini."

The instant Harry released her hand, he found himself facing Pink who had also removed her helmet and offered her hand. "Kimberly Hart, Pink Ranger and pilot of the Pterodactyl Dinozord."

Shortly afterward, Harry was reintroduced to Billy Cranston, Blue Ranger and Triceratops Dinozord and introduced to Zack Taylor, Black Ranger and Mastodon Dinozord, leaving only Red standing firm with his helmet still on.

It was a surprisingly tense situation, Red standing defiantly before Harry while the other Rangers, sans helmets, stood with the wizard. Finally, after a few more moments, Red slowly removed his own helmet, revealing the short hair and round face Harry had seen earlier that day with the others.

"I really hope we're not going to regret this…" he mumbled to himself, though easily audible to everyone in the room, before he offered his hand as well, "Jason Lee Scott, Red Ranger, Leader of the Power Rangers, and pilot of the Tyrannosaurus Dinozord."

Harry took his hand, careful to match the firm grip Jason gave him. "Thank you for your trust Jason. I swear to you I will do everything I can to prove myself worthy of it."

Jason merely nodded before stepping back again, his eyes growing slightly distant as he became lost in his thoughts.

"Now Rangers," Zordon interjected into the relative calm that had grown after the introductions. "We have received clear evidence that Rita has gained the ability to use Harry's stolen focus to increase her own power and the power of her monsters. We must remain vigilant and stand ready for the attacks that will inevitably follow."

"Of course, Zordon." Jason responded instantly with a nod. "We can handle anything she can dish out."

"I just have one question now," Zack said after another moment. Turning to Harry, he continued, "What happened to your hand? It was pretty well cooked when we got you back here, but I didn't see you get hit with anything while we were watching the fight."

Harry gave a half smile. "Whenever Rita and Goldar stole the Elder Wand from me, she made a comment that I was 'of no consequence' without my focus. While this is not expressly true, as you all now know, it cannot be said to be completely false either."

Harry paused and closed his eyes for a moment, trying to think of the best way to explain things. "Alright," he finally began, "I'm just going to have to give you guys a bit of background information here to explain the handicap I'm working under. Back at my school, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, there were six core classes that pretty much represented the primary areas of magical study. Of those six, three of them are pretty much irrelevant in my current situation. These three are Astronomy, the study of the stars and how they can affect things in the magical world; Herbology, the study of magical plants and fungi that probably don't even exist in this dimension; and Potions, the use of these magical plants and fungi as well as parts of certain magical animals and the like to create mixtures that cause different effects on the one who drinks them. The three that are still relevant would be Transfiguration, the art of changing one thing to another and conjuring objects out of nothing; Charms, a very wide branch of magic that represents most day-to-day spells that wizards use; and Defense Against the Dark Arts, a kind of magical self-defense class that covered different hexes, jinxes, curses, and their counters so that we could protect ourselves if necessary."

Taking a deep breath, Harry sat himself down on the cot, facing the Rangers now with Zordon and Alpha behind him listening intently. "The issue here is that I don't have a wand. I am capable of using wandless magic, as you have seen, but there are side effects to doing so. For example, most offensive spells; hexes, curses, jinxes and the like; tend to hurt me as well. The Levin Bolt I used earlier is what caused the damage to my hand. Offensive spells are capable of damage immediately upon leaving the focus, and when the focus is part of the wizard…" He held up his bandaged hand. "Well, you get the idea."

Jason was the first one to speak. "So you can fight, but it hurts you pretty badly to do so?"

Harry immediately shook his head. "Not necessarily, no. Purely offensive spells can and do damage the caster to various degrees when cast wandlessly. It really depends on the spell in all honesty as some will do more damage to the caster than others. Charms on the other hand are decidedly less dangerous in most cases and tend to just mirror the effect of the spell on the caster for a short time. For example, if I were to cast a charm to stick your feet to the floor you would be rather hard pressed to do much to me and all I would have to deal with is my fingers being stuck together until I cancel the charm on myself or it wears off on its own as my internal magic fights against the spell. Charms tend to be less directly useful for combat though. As I said, they're mostly for day to day stuff. Not to say that they can't be dangerous if used correctly. If I were to levitate a pointed stone a hundred feet up and drop it on a monster's head it would take just as much damage as if I had hit it with a piercing hex on the same spot. You see?"

The Rangers nodded as one, Billy looking to be immensely interested while the others seemed somewhat taken aback by the mental image. "Transfiguration by comparison is actually the safest art to use wandlessly and especially so for me. I don't like to brag, but I have one of the strongest wills out of any wizard in my world. That level of willpower makes me uniquely adept at transfiguration spells since I am, at the simplest level of comprehension, enforcing my will and magic upon whatever I'm trying to change. There are actually very few real spells in the proverbial Transfiguration Spellbook. The ones that do exist are largely geared toward certain types of transformation: animate to animate, animate to inanimate, Conjuration, etcetera. It's all about using the proper spell and enforcing your own willpower and intent to get the required result. The only real limitation that exists on wandless transfiguration is that it requires a bit more focus and willpower, which as I said I have in spades, and the range that I can affect things at is more limited than with a wand. Say… sixty feet or so as opposed to a few hundred if I had a wand…"

Jason didn't seem completely convinced. "I still don't see how that can help in battle though. I don't see how you would be able to help at all without critically injuring yourself, and we just can't ask you to do that."

Harry smiled, allowing his inner Marauder to shine through for a moment. "Alright then Jason, let's go back to my example of sticking your feet to the floor. If we were fighting and I was to do so, what would be your first reaction?"

Jason paused only for a moment before responding. "I'd pull out my blade blaster."

Harry nodded, noticing that Jason had automatically assumed he'd be in uniform at the time. "And when your blade blaster suddenly became a rather disgruntled looking chicken… What would you do then?"

The look on Jason's face was enough to send everyone, even Zordon, into fits of uncontrollable laughter.

-MR-

AN: I first came across the concept of the Levin Bolt in Mercedes Lackey's Heralds of Valdemar series (which I don't own). A Levin Bolt is a burst of pure magic that is strongly reminiscent of lightning or electricity and is primarily used as a form of attack. I decided to use it on a whim here and may continue to do so throughout the story. I haven't decided yet.

Anyway, don't forget to review!

Tenstar12


	5. Chapter 5

Magi Ranger

By: Tenstar12

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or Power Rangers.

 **Chapter 5, In Which Time Passes, Some Team Bonding is Done, and a Toad Causes Terror**

Shortly after their conversation on the nature of Harry's magic, the Rangers had left to go back to the carnival. Apparently, despite the fact that it was largely run by Rita's putties, it was still going to continue through the end of the next day even without their presence. On top of that, Trini needed to get back to her cousin, Sylvia.

They had, however, been thoughtful enough to acquire a food supply for Harry. It wasn't anything more than a loaf of bread and a jar of peanut butter with some plastic cutlery and bottled water, but Harry had certainly survived on less during his time at the Dursleys. It honestly wasn't terribly bad for such short notice even if it was about as limited of a selection as it was possible to have, but Harry appreciated the thought all the same.

In lieu of anything else to do, Harry had shuffled his way into his room and started transfiguring his furnishings. In the end he had a small desk and chair along with a trunk all transfigured from stone teleported in by Alpha. He then brought the cot he had now woken on twice into his room. It was surprisingly comfortable all things accounted for.

After packing the Cloak of Invisibility and his pilfered vine into his new trunk, placing the vine under a stasis charm to keep it from degrading, it had been a simple matter of transfiguring his clothing and closing his eyes before he fell asleep. Upon waking the next day, well into the afternoon as it turned out, Harry found himself with very little to do with himself.

After spending a fruitless and frustrating hour trying to remove the goblin charms from one of his Galleons, Harry turned to the main room of the command center to occupy himself. One would have thought that with all the technological wonders within the building there would be plenty to do and learn, however in reality that was almost entirely the opposite of the truth. As it turned out, the majority of the consoles had no displays to coordinate with them. In order you use them you either had to be a robot like Alpha who had a direct link to the computers and so was able to immediately interpret all the data passing through them, or have a genius level IQ and near photographic memory like Billy, who was able to remember how to use everything and what each button did or be able to infer their functions with relatively little difficulty. Since Harry was neither, he would need to look elsewhere to cure his boredom.

Alpha could have certainly tried to teach Harry how to use the computers, but the robot was still rather busy trying to create Harry's identity in this dimension. Since Harry knew this was a far more delicate and important activity than entertaining him, he left Alpha to his work.

Another option would be for Harry to spend some time outside the command center, hiking in the mountains that it was hidden in. The only problem with that was that his hand was still burned. Not nearly as badly as the day before due to his magic working furiously to heal him at an accelerated rate, but still bad enough to keep him mostly limited to indoor activities.

He also wasn't eager to make his way into Angel Grove again. Partially because of how poorly his first outing had turned out and partially because he would rather have one of the Rangers along with him to show him around. The other teens were all busy though, having all made plans for that day with their respective families.

And so it was that Harry spent most of his Sunday that he hadn't already slept through in deep meditation, shoring up his Occlumency shields, sorting through new memories, and trying not to think about how bored he really was.

-MR-

The next morning Harry woke up at a more appropriate waking time only to find that there was still nothing to do. This time the reason was that it was Monday and the Rangers were all in school.

High School at that. As in not even legally adults yet. And they were fighting in a war to save the planet.

The level of random parallels between what the Rangers were doing now and the things Harry had had to live with back in his own world sometimes scared him.

But that did bring him to another thought. If the Rangers were still in school, all in their Junior Year of High School according to Zordon, clarifying that they only had one more year after their current before they graduated when Harry had asked, then that meant that they were most likely younger than he was.

Not that Harry's lofty 19 years (or was it 13 with the time travel?) gave him any sense of superiority over the younger Rangers. Upon asking again, Zordon revealed that Jason and Zack were 18 and the rest were 17. Zack had also had a birthday recently, which had been crashed by one of Rita's monsters. This story about the Nasty Knight had developed into Zordon telling the bored wizard about the various battles that the current team of Power Rangers had engaged in since the formation of their team a few months previously.

From there, Zordon went back through the ages, filling Harry's head with tales of past deeds of greatness and goodness. From a previous team of rangers battling an ancient evil, a morphological being known as Ivan Ooze, to Zordon himself battling against Rita's forces in the time before his imprisonment. As it turned out, the ancient being rather enjoyed telling these stories and the both of them lost track of time until Harry nearly fell asleep where he was sitting against one of the consoles, having to be roused by Alpha to head to his room to sleep more comfortably.

-MR-

On Tuesday morning, Harry woke slowly, feeling the lethargy that slips over everyone when they wake late and know it, but can't quite work up the desire to get up just yet. He shifted around slightly, knowing he lacked the room on his cot-like bed to really roll around much, and attempted to get back to sleep.

Then he sat up when the noise that had finally roused him registered. There was shouting in the main room of the Command Center.

Without a further thought and now fully awake, Harry jumped off his bed and out his door. To those standing in the Command Center that were not privy to the secret door and associated room Harry had created, it appeared as though Harry had shown up out of thin air… Standing shirtless, his lightly muscled torso on full display, and in a pair of black and green pajama pants with tiny golden snitches on them. It took several moments of everyone staring before Harry noticed his state of undress.

With a thought and a wave of his hand, Harry's pajama pants flowed around him, forming into a pair of blue jeans and a white t-shirt with white tennis shoes. Now dressed properly, Harry once more focused on the people standing in the command center. "Morning… Umm… Why are Billy and Kimberly in a glowing cage? And why are they dressed like… whatever it is they're dressed like?"

Billy, far from his blue coveralls and large glasses, was now wearing dark colored jeans and a tight black shirt with a blue jean vest with torn sleeves over it. He was wearing a pair of blue tinted sunglasses and a black bandana over his hair along with various chains and some kind of collar.

Kimberly was wearing very short pink shorts and a pink and white top with a pair of high boots. She also wore a blue jean jacket and a spiked collar around her neck. Her hair looked rather frazzled compared to the last time Harry had seen her and she seemed to be wearing an overabundance of makeup as she stood there obnoxiously chewing a piece of gum as loudly as she possibly could.

The two of them were standing within a set of vertical bars that were glowing with a white light around ten feet from where Harry had set up the door to his room. They seemed to be rather cautious about staying away from the bars, so Harry figured they were probably energized somehow to keep the two inside.

"Good morning, Harry," Zordon began. "It is good that you have joined us as I feel your magical abilities may be of some use in our present situation."

Nodding to Jason, Trini, and Zack, and selectively ignoring the slight blush on Trini's face, Harry made his way to stand before Zordon in the middle of the Command Center. "Sure, Zordon. I'll be glad to do what I can."

"Hey!" Kimberly suddenly shouted in a rather loud and obnoxious voice that easily drew everyone's attention. "Quit talking about us like we're not here!"

As her face twisted into an ugly sneer, Billy's face mimicked hers. "Yeah!" he shouted, using an equally obnoxious tone. "Quit it or we'll kick your freaking butts!"

Then they both started cackling to each other like they had said something funny.

Harry raised an eyebrow and looked back toward Zordon. "So… Huh?"

"Please, observe the Viewing Globe and all will be made clear."

Harry immediately turned with the other Rangers, at least those not currently in a cage, to watch the images forming within the large orb. The first thing that Harry saw was the blue winged monkey looking guy that had shown up with Goldar and one other when the Rangers were battling the Pinoctopus. The being was riding some kind of flying bicycle and carrying a red liquid in a beaker. "This is Baboo," Zordon started. "He is one of Rita's most loyal servants. Despite his usual dimwittedness, he is actually a gifted chemist and has created a formula that, when ingested, turned Billy and Kimberly into what they are now."

Harry nodded in thought. "So it's some kind of personality altering potion? It changed them into… Well… That?"

"Indeed," Zordon continued. "I have seen this used before in my past dealings with Rita. Baboo calls it his punk potion and it alters the personality of whomever imbibes it and makes them rude and obnoxious to everyone around them."

"Why don't you let us outta here and then I'll show you 'rude and obnoxious,' you green-headed freak!" Billy taunted, sparking off another grating round of laughter from the two 'punked' Power Rangers.

With a negligent wave of his hand, Harry cast a Silencing Charm around the cage, instantly cutting off the harsh noise from the two afflicted teens. "Well, I can certainly try and check them out. I've gotta warn you though, medical spells aren't really my strongest area. I mean, I know a bit of first aid healing and such, I kinda had to since I was fighting all the time, but it's certainly not my specialty."

"Any help you can provide will be appreciated, Harry," Zordon responded. "When last I encountered this formula, the only cure we could find involved a key ingredient: the Singing Squash. This rare plant only grows in certain dimensional gaps. Alpha and I are currently searching for such a gap, but it will take some time to locate one, much less retrieve the squash from it. I fear that Rita will take advantage of our situation before we are able to do so successfully."

Harry, silently agreeing with Zordon, made his way back over to the cage, passing through the outer limits of his silencing charm as he did. "HEY!" Kimberly was shouting, and probably had been since shortly after Harry first cast the spell if the redness in her face was anything to go by. "STOP IGNORING US AND LET US OUT!"

"YEAH!" Billy parroted. "LET US OUT YOU WIMP!"

Ignoring them as best he could, Harry cast a basic medical diagnostic charm. It was one of the first charms that he had been taught by Madam Pomfrey during the war. The kindly hospital wing matron had been the only fully medically trained individual in the Order at the time and was more than eager to teach her skills to anyone else who was interested, even if it was only enough to take a tiny bit of the workload off her hands. Every bit helped in those days.

After receiving the results, Harry casually stepped back out of the magical bubble of silence, wiggling a finger in one ear in an attempt to dull the ringing in it caused by the shouting from the two teens. "Bloody Hell…" he mumbled. "I'm sure glad they aren't normally like that. I don't think I'd be able to keep myself from cursing them every time I see them."

Zack quickly stepped up to Harry, staring him in the eyes with a serious look and his hands placed on the wizard's shoulders. "Harry," Zack started calmly. "We really need to introduce you to Bulk and Skull…"

Almost immediately Trini and Zack burst out laughing, though Jason limited himself to a smirk, his face otherwise retaining a very tense sort of wariness coupled with occasional concerned glances at his two friends in the cage.

Not getting the joke, though if the calculating look still in Zack's eyes was anything to go by he would be able to understand before too long, Harry turned back to Zordon to give his report. "Well," he started. "I've got good news and bad news. The good news is that your diagnosis is correct based on what I can tell. Billy and Kimberly are in fact under the influence of some kind of mind altering potion. The bad news is that that's about all I can tell. These types of charms are rather detail oriented and I can't get as good of a read without a focus…"

"Do you have any other ideas as to how we can cure them?" Trini was quick to ask, the worry clearly evident in her features and voice now that her laughing fit had calmed.

Harry only shook his head sadly. "Not as such no. If I had my kit from back during the war I could whip up a potion or two that may do the trick… Maybe a dose of Mandrake Restorative Draught from the supply…" He trailed off for a moment before violently shaking his head again, casting the thoughts of what could have been done 'if only' aside. "Other than what I was able to tell you already, little as it was, there really isn't anything I can add. Sorry."

Trini and the others seemed to slump slightly before she spoke again. "It's alright, Harry. We were just hoping that you'd have an idea…"

Before Harry could respond, Zordon cut in, "Our only recourse at this point is to remain in readiness as we continue the search for the Singing Squash. Do not worry yourselves over what might have been. The only outcome on that path is painful for all involved."

As the only teen present with any kind of experience with more traditional war, Harry fully understood Zordon's point. It was something that had been drilled into his head by Moody and Dumbledore almost endlessly. If you spent all your time looking back, you missed what was coming up ahead, and that could cost you dearly. Especially when one wrong step could mean the end of it all.

With a firm nod, Harry turned back to the un-drugged Rangers with a playful smile on his face. "So, aren't you guys supposed to be in school?"

Zack's face lit up in a smile while Jason's remained neutral and Trini actually looked a bit down. It was Zack, however, who answered his question. "That's one perk of this Power Ranger thing that I've certainly enjoyed. If there's an emergency during school hours, Zordon can usually use his magic to help cover for us so we won't get in trouble." The happy teen started lightly hopping and dancing in place, lightly punching Jason in the shoulder and causing the more muscled teen to smile.

"Yes," Trini interjected as she rolled her eyes. "But then we have to study twice as hard to make up for what we missed without making it seem like we really missed it in the first place. And there's no real substitute for a professional teacher showing us these things…"

So it seemed like Zack was, much as Harry had first surmised, rather laid back. He enjoyed getting time away from school like most teens, but was still capable of taking things seriously when necessary as illustrated by his double life as a Ranger. He just joked around as much as he could, kind of a comic relief thing. Keep the spirits of the others up as much as he can.

Trini by contrast was clearly much more academically minded. Perhaps not to the same level as Billy, but then again, with a brain like his he may not have to take it as seriously to do as well as he does.

Before Harry's mind could continue on his evaluations of his new almost-friends, Jason spoke up. "So, why can't we hear them anymore?" He nodded toward Billy and Kimberly, who were both now completely red in the face, their mouths moving as they shouted what were inevitably obscenities and insults at all and sundry.

"Silencing Charm," Harry said with a smile. "It's a variant of the basic charm in this case in that instead of silencing an object, it silences an area. It's a rather simple and incredibly handy spell. It can be used for anything from quieting an annoyance as in this case to silencing shoes so you can sneak up on someone to getting rid of the annoying squeak on the fourth stair down in your house."

Zack blinked. "That was an oddly specific example…"

Harry chuckled for a moment. "Back in my old world that kind of thing happened more often than you'd think. Magic has its own rules and a sort of sentience. Houses or structures that were exposed to extreme levels of magic over long periods of time developed certain… quirks. It was almost like the ambient magic brought them to life. So one could find themselves in an ancestral home and having to renew a silencing charm on a particular step each morning because the house seemed to like the squeak it made and so fought to keep making the noise, resisting any magic you applied."

Jason's eyes had gotten rather wide. "That sounds crazy… houses coming to life? I don't think I could live like that…"

Harry just shrugged. "You get used to that kinda thing after a while. Back at my old school, the staircases would randomly switch where they went to. It was rather inconvenient to be trying to get to a class only to have the stairs move while you were on them and drop you off on the other side of the school. You just have to learn to adapt. Or make friends with the stairs. That works too."

Silence fell again as none of the Rangers quite knew how to respond to Harry's matter of fact statement. Finally, Trini stepped over toward Harry, reaching out toward his injured hand. "Here, Harry," She said as she took hold of his arm and lifted his hand up. "Let me check your bandages. It's probably past time they got changed anyway."

"Oh!" Harry gave a slight start at the unexpected contact. "Are you the one who wrapped my hand then? Thanks for that, by the way."

Trini smiled as she unwound the bandages carefully. "It's no problem. After all, you got hurt defending my friends, so it's the least I could do. Besides, I took a first aid class at the youth center a while ago but the suits protect us from most of the injuries we would otherwise be receiving so I hardly ever get to use what I learned."

By this point, Trini had the bandages most of the way off and was carefully running her fingertips along the nearly perfectly healed, if still slightly pink, flesh that had been exposed. "I don't understand." She said, attracting the attention of Zordon, Jason, and Zack. "When I wrapped this, the skin was really badly burnt… But now it looks almost as good as new." Perplexed, she looked up at Harry, curiosity in her eyes. "Did you use some of your healing magic or something? You said you had been taught some, right?"

Harry gave a noncommittal shrug. "Funny thing about that. It's a strange quirk of healing magic that it cannot be administered wandlessly to oneself. It's been studied for generations and nobody has ever been able to explain it. But the point is, no, I didn't heal myself actively. On top of it being an unexplainable magical impossibility, those were magical burns, so adding more magic to them would actually be like rubbing sandpaper across a bad sunburn. Generally not a good idea." The other humans in the room winced at the comparison.

"No, the burns healed so fast simply because I'm a wizard. Our magic helps accelerate our healing most of the time. If it weren't for the fact that the excess magic had to be leeched out before the damage could be fixed, these burns probably wouldn't even be tender by now." Harry smiled at the dumbfounded looks on their faces. "I love magic. It may be random sometimes and generally unpredictable, but you can't argue with the perks."

-MR-

After Trini had rewrapped his hand "just in case," the three Rangers and one wizard spent the next few hours waiting. As it was, Harry was rather accustomed to the practice after the last two days and was glad for the slight change brought about by the presence of the other three, but that didn't change the simple fact of their overwhelming boredom. Since they were supposed to be in school, they couldn't exactly go wandering around town for fear of being discovered. There really wasn't enough room in the Command Center for any sparring practice and Harry didn't know any form of martial arts anyway (something the Rangers almost unanimously decided to try and rectify as soon as they could).

The boredom got so bad that Jason had started pacing in his frustration while Zack seemed to almost be vibrating where he sat due to prolonged inaction. Trini seemed mostly alright, but she had apparently studied a few styles of Kung Fu and was used to long periods of meditation and stillness as a result. Harry had spent copious amounts of time in meditation for his Occlumency over the years, but that didn't mean he was comfortable with the wait so her explanation befuddled him.

So it was with an almost palpable sense of relief that the alarm klaxons in the Command Center began sounding off about two hours after their conversation had ended.

Alpha immediately started to panic as he ran over to the Viewing Globe, now showing a large, bipedal toad like creature with a horn on its forehead and a large, distended stomach. "Ai yai yai yai yai! Oh no! Zordon, Rita has sent a monster to attack Angel Grove!"

"It is her most evil creation yet, the Terror Toad," Zordon stated, his calm seemingly unshakable. "This creature has an insatiable appetite and will eat nearly anything. Worse still, its power grows the more it ingests. You must take immediate action Rangers."

Jason stepped forward immediately, Trini and Zack flanking him while Harry stood off to one side with a slightly bemused look on his face at their actions. "But Zordon, what about Billy and Kimberly?"

"We shall continue the search for the Singing Squash. I feel we are very close now. As soon as it is located, I shall send Alpha to retrieve it and prepare the antidote for Baboo's Punk Potion. In the meantime, the three of you will need to do whatever you can to hold off the Terror Toad. Harry, I would ask that you accompany the Rangers. They may need your help against this monster."

Harry gave the giant head a short nod. "I'll do whatever I can to help, Zordon."

"Very well then. I thank you, Harry. Go now, Rangers, and may the Power protect you."

"Alright, guys. It's Morphin' Time!"

-MR-

Once the three Rangers were in costume again, the four were teleported by Alpha to the area of the park that the monster was in, Harry in a white beam and the others in their respective colors. Once he gathered himself again, Harry turned to the costumed heroes. "Well, Jason, you're the leader; how do you want to do this?"

Jason paused for a moment in thought before responding. "Do you have that cloak on you? The one that turns you invisible I mean." At Harry's nod he continued. "Then put it on. Stay nearby and provide support as you can. You don't have the same level of protection that our suits provide us and you don't have any martial arts training so you won't be able to mesh with our attacks very well, but if you stay out of sight it should give us an advantage."

Harry saw this for what it really was. Jason was trying to keep him out of the way. He fully expected for the three Rangers to take care of the toad monster easily and didn't want Harry to do anything to interfere with that. That level of cockiness could end up getting someone hurt, especially in the face of Rita's current crop of monsters that they already knew were stronger than any before. Nonetheless, Harry nodded before pulling out the Cloak of Invisibility and wrapping it around himself. "Good luck everyone," he said before pulling the hood over his head.

Jason nodded himself after Harry vanished. "Alright Rangers, let's take care of this toad!" As he spoke he swiped his hand through the air and then formed a tight fist and held it in front of his face.

"Right!" Zack and Trini spoke simultaneously, mimicking Jason's clenched fist before they ran off. Harry had noticed the Rangers did this random hand waving and fist clenching thing a lot. Whether it was part of them acting the part of being superheroes as they saw it or something else he hadn't quite decided yet.

By the time Harry had broken out of his musings the Rangers already had a decent head start on him. When he finally caught up to them, they were already engaging the toad like monster with their blade blasters.

Harry stood back for a moment and observed the creature more closely, taking in detail he had missed in the viewing globe. The creature's arms looked far too short to fight effectively over its enormous stomach, though it appeared to manage well enough if it's apparently effortless blocks of the Ranger's attacks and follow-up counterstrikes were anything to go by. It seemed to move far too quickly for something with its outrageous proportions though its bulk clearly worked in its favor from a defensive standpoint as Harry watched it simply absorb a powerful kick from Jason without even flinching before knocking the Ranger away again.

Shaking himself slightly Harry resolved to think more on this later. It was entirely possible that very little of his previous battle knowledge and tactics from the war against Voldemort would stand in this new world. The rules of magic as he knew them didn't exclusively apply around here so who's to say that anything else would be the same. Pure blooded Death Eaters probably didn't fight anything like Rita's monsters would.

He was once more drawn from his thoughts as the Terror Toad knocked Jason and Zack away in a shower of sparks, grabbed Trini by one arm and flung her through the air away from the other two Rangers and toward where Harry stood, invisible. As the Yellow Ranger struggled to regain her feet, the monster opened its mouth wide and its long tongue flew out, wrapping around her securely. Mere moments later, the toad gave a heave of its head and Trini began flying toward its gaping maw.

"Shit!" Harry cursed, thinking quickly. " _Accio!"_

The toad seemed confused for a moment as its strength was countered by a still invisible Harry's Summoning Charm. Trini was left suspended in the air between the two, held there by the tension of the Toad's retracting tongue and the pull of Harry's spell and willpower. The stalemate was ended when Jason leapt between the monster and his teammate, his longsword once more in hand and flashing in the sunlight as he struck out at the fleshy muscle holding the Yellow Ranger.

Almost immediately the Terror Toad's tongue released Trini as he stumbled back, allowing Harry's charm to finally begin pulling her through the air towards him. "Oh bugger…" Harry murmured just before she crashed into him, sending both of them sprawling to the ground and causing Harry's cloak to flip up, revealing him to Rita's monster.

"OH!" it shouted. "It's that little mage brat that Mistress Rita warned me about! So that's how you stopped me from eating that Ranger! I'm gonna make you guys pay for getting in the way of my snack!"

Jason and Zack, now wielding a large black axe, both moved to hold the reptile back while Trini and Harry recovered.

"Well," Harry started once the two had regained their feet, "that went well. I guess there's not much point in me staying invisible now that he knows I'm here. And Rita told him about me… that's something as well I suppose…"

"We'll just have to think on it later." Trini cut him off. "For now I've gotta get back in there and help the others." Without another word, Trini somehow manifested a pair of foot long daggers with yellow handles and silver pommels and leapt back into the fight. Quite literally in this case as she flew through the air an impossible distance to deal a quick double slash with her weapons, sending sparks flying off of the toad monster on impact.

"Oh, you're back to play some more?" The Terror Toad mocked as he took a half step back, the only reaction given after Trini's attack. "Why don't you try flying again?" The monster swung one of it stunted arms and smashed into Trini, sending her once more through the air only to crash into a tree.

"And now you're mine!" The toad once more fired its tongue toward Trini, hoping to make a meal of the yellow Ranger.

Once more acting quickly, Harry Apparated over to Trini, grabbed her, and vanished again with a soft pop, reappearing on the other side of the toad with the other two Rangers.

"Was that teleportation?" Zack asked, his voice awash in awe.

"Sure didn't feel like it…" Trini groaned, collapsing to her knees as Harry knelt next to her in concern. "I feel like Power Ranger taffy…"

"Sorry about that," Harry said shyly. "Apparition is hardly the most fun way to travel, but if it's any consolation, you do get used to the stretching sensation. Eventually anyway…"

Slowly, Trini's helmeted head turned to face Harry. "It's not. It's really not." Her voice was practically dripping sarcasm.

"We don't have time for this now!" Jason interrupted with a fierce shout before charging back at the now recovered toad only to be once more easily smacked out of the way.

"You're getting on my nerves little human!" The toad shouted as he knocked Zack to one side as well and began waddling at his full, and honestly impressive for his size, speed toward Harry and the still incapacitated Trini. "All this fighting is making me hungry and I see my main course!"

Standing smoothly, Harry took a quick glance over the battlefield. Jason and Zack had not yet regained their feet after their most recent failed exchanges with the monster and Trini was still recovering. The toad was around twenty feet away now, but seemed unwilling to just use his tongue again after Harry had ruined his last two attempts. It looked like it was time for the Man-Who-Won to step up.

Moving to stand in front of Trini, Harry waved his right hand before him and began focusing his will and magic.

The ground started to rumble and the toad stumbled slightly before tripping and rolling to a stop around a dozen feet away from Harry. Before anyone could react, the earth erupted around the fallen monster only for the loose dirt in the air to then coalesce into four large stone arms that quickly latched onto the flailing limbs of the Terror Toad, holding it to the ground.

With a deep breath, Harry took a step closer and began calling up his magic again, releasing it into the air around him and pushing the entire mass of air and magic forward so that it engulfed the now panicking monster. It wasn't until the three Rangers gathered together behind Harry that they truly began to notice the cold.

Ice started forming on the tips of the grass around the trapped reptile and the monster began to shriek as the chilling fingers of frost began to spread onto it. "NO!" It screamed, now in a full panic. "Not the cold! I hate the c-c-c-cold!" Its cries for mercy, whether genuine or not, were in vain however as mere moments later, and with a soft exhalation from Harry, the Terror Toad, the stone arms restraining it, and everything within two feet in every direction froze into a solid block of ice.

The Rangers just stood dumbfounded as they stared at the monster that they had been unable to deal any real damage to for the entirety of their fight. Finally, Zack spoke in a breathless whisper that nonetheless carried easily in the complete silence that had engulfed the area, "Whoa…"

"Yeah," Harry panted. "Whoa. That guy put up more of a fight than I thought he would. I guess these monsters are resistant to most normal magics. I don't know if that is because of the Elder Wand or some innate resistance, but it took way more magic than it should have to freeze him like that."

"You never mentioned you could do something like that!" Jason almost sounded upset with Harry although the heavy tone of shock masked most of it.

Harry gave a smile, mischief dancing in his eyes. "Well, you never asked, did you?"

Any response Jason may have made was interrupted by the high pitched mumbling of a horde of putties and the dark cackling of Goldar. "So Rangers, you think that your pet mageling has defeated the Terror Toad do you?" Goldar spoke as he appeared alongside the putties around the toad-cicle. "Well guess again!"

With an almost negligent swing of his sword, Goldar shattered the ice around the toad and the stone arms restraining it. Now released from his icy prison, the toad leapt to its feet once more. "Now you've made me hopping mad! I'm gonna make you pay for that, and I'm gonna start with the little mage!" Without another word, the monster once more let his tongue fly, traversing the dozen feet between it and Harry in mere moments. Yet Harry, his reflexes honed through his years fighting against dark wizards and his training at the hands of the best the Order of the Phoenix could offer was faster still.

With a mere thought, Harry conjured a metal pole directly in front of him and watched with detached humor as the Terror Toad's tongue wrapped around it instead of him. Then he quickly cast a cooling charm on his left hand, followed by an overpowered heating charm on the pole using his charmed hand. The end result: the cooling charm was cancelled, the pole got red hot in an instant, and the Toad began screaming in agony.

"WAAAAAAAAAARGH!" it screamed, quickly retracting its tongue and leaving a few scraps of burnt flesh behind on the pole that Harry quickly Vanished, "Bwah bib ooh boo boo me? Mah pong! Ooh baahd mah pong! AAAAAAAARGH!"

Goldar growled as the toad monster moaned and held his burned tongue in his stubby arms. "Curse you Mageling! Putty patrollers, ATTACK!"

As the grey colored horde of evil soldiers moved to encircle the Rangers and Harry, Jason finally snapped out of his shock. "Alright guys, let's do this!"

"Right!" Zack and Trini responded before the three costumed teens charged to meet the putties head on. Their battle quickly took them off to one side, leaving Harry standing on his own, idly staring down Goldar and the still writhing toad.

"You won't be so lucky this time, Mageling…" Goldar taunted as he began to stalk forward, brandishing his sword. "There won't be any Power Rangers to save you from your early demise."

"You know Goldar," Harry mused, backing up as he spoke. "I've fought against and been threatened by individuals much scarier and uglier than you. I'm still around to talk about it. What do you think happened to them?" With a quick lunge, Harry dashed to the opposite side from where the Rangers were battling the putties, simultaneously casting a Reductor curse out of his left hand and forcing down the twinge of pain as he did so.

Goldar swung his sword before him, deflecting the curse down into the ground and causing an explosion that sent a shower of dirt into the air. This provided cover enough for Harry to draw his cloak closed around him and flip up the hood once more, vanishing from sight before the air cleared.

Goldar was rather quick to notice this. "Hiding Mageling?" he drawled. "I'll just have to flush you out!" With a dramatic wave of his free arm that Harry was almost coming to expect before any non-physical attack, Goldar's eyes lit up and beams of energy lanced out, raking across the earth and forcing Harry to dive for the ground to avoid being bisected.

One benefit of battle Transfiguration magic was that it left no light trail for an opponent to follow to a hidden attacker. Harry had used this tactic somewhat often in the war against Voldemort and fell back on his old standby as his magic caused the ground to surge up around Goldar in the form of four writing tentacles that quickly moved to restrain Rita's general.

Goldar had not earned his position through laziness, however. With a few quick swings of his blade each of the earthen tentacles were severed from their bases, disrupting the magic holding them together and causing them to fall back to the ground in a shower of loose soil. Harry had barely managed to regain his feet before Goldar once more let loose a blast of energy from his eyes, forcing him to shield himself and give away his position.

"Your magic is formidable Mageling…" Goldar spoke as he stalked toward the Protego bubble, his eye lasers pounding on Harry's defenses. "And it is certainly interesting that you can use it without a focus as my mistress assumed."

"Yeah," Harry interrupted letting out another pulse of magic with his left hand, his right busy holding up his Protego. "You'll find I'm just full of surprises."

Goldar quickly lost his footing as the solid earth beneath him turned to a glue like quicksand and the laser attack quickly breaking down Harry's shield was cut off when he began to sink, his instinctive struggling only causing him to sink more rapidly. Acting quickly, Harry apparated to stand a short distance behind Goldar, who was now submerged to just above his waist with his left arm stuck from just below his elbow where he had tried to free himself. He moved just in time as another lance of energy shot out from Goldar's furious eyes and caused an explosion where Harry had been standing mere moments before.

With a grimace at how close he had been to being blasted, Harry transfigured the quicksand that now held Goldar most of the way up his torso into concrete. The monster was left trapped with his head and shoulders exposed and his sword arm and weapon awkwardly held in the air to keep it free.

Then things really went downhill.

"ZACK!"

Harry spun around at Jason's shout in time to see that the Terror Toad had recovered and gone after the Rangers. His last sight of Zack was a pair of black and white legs kicking frantically as they disappeared into the giant reptilian monster's mouth. Laughing the entire time, the toad pounded one hand on his stomach until an image of Zack's Black Ranger helmet appeared on it.

"Mmmm Mmmm, tasty!" the toad gloated. "He was good! Every time I swallow one of you my power grows!" The toad then descended into cackles as Jason and Trini stood helplessly, most likely shocked into inaction at their friend's apparent fate. They didn't get to remain stunned for long though as the putties quickly moved to engage them again, most likely having backed off when the toad struck.

Harry himself was distracted by an explosion from behind him and spun back around to find Goldar had freed himself and was climbing out of the newly created hole in the ground. "You and the Rangers are finished!" the simian mocked as he once more advanced on Harry, forcing him to back up to stay out of range of the monster's sword. "Once the Terror Toad devours the Yellow and Red Rangers he will be more than powerful enough to take care of the remaining two. And that's only if you pathetic do gooders manage to cure them of the effects of Baboo's Punk Potion!"

Harry scrambled to think of something, anything at this point, to get the Rangers and himself out of this mess. The near constant metallic clanging sound of the putties being hit by the other Rangers reassured him that they hadn't been eaten just yet, but that wasn't much comfort in the grand scheme of things.

Moments later, Trini's scream accompanied by more of the Toad's guttural laughter and Jason's own cry of denial let him know that he hadn't been thinking fast enough and another Ranger just got eaten.

Goldar let out a laugh of his own as he lunged toward Harry faster than before, making the wizard stumble and fall to his back. "Just give in Mageling! You've lost!" The monster brought his sword around and rested the point just below Harry's chin.

Harry's eyes narrowed and he took a deep breath, forcibly calming himself and ignoring the cold steel on his neck. "If there's one thing I've learned in my life, Goldar, it's to never give up. There's always a chance."

Goldar's glare seemed to intensify as he brought his sword back up over his head in preparation to end Harry's life. "So be it!"

With the blade away from him, Harry took his chance and sent a Full Body Bind at Goldar. At such a close range, the monster had no time at all to react to the flash of light before his arms snapped to his sides and his legs locked together. The wizard quickly climbed back to his feet and stood before the trapped simian who appeared to be straining for all he was worth to escape the spell's magical hold. "Sorry about that mate," Harry spoke casually. "I've got a few things to take care of so I can't play with you anymore." Without another word he gave the monster a slight shove which caused the armor plated monkey to fall stiffly to his back and bounce a few times before settling down.

His current opponent taken care of for the moment, Harry spun around and began running toward Jason. His hands started giving off flashes of light as he cast a barrage of magic at the putties surrounding the Red Ranger to try and give him some breathing room. The clay constructs were pummeled with tripping jinxes, leg locker curses, full body binds, knockback jinxes, and any other minor offensive spells Harry could think of as he approached. His spellwork, while mostly intended to distract while causing minimal damage to himself, did its job as Jason was able to capitalize on it and get away from the horde of putties that had been surrounding him.

"Thanks Harry," Jason said, sounding out of breath as he stood next to the wizard and faced down the putties. "I thought they had me there for a minute."

"Hey not a problem," Harry responded, equally out of breath from his rapid casting. "Just figured I'd do what I could to pull my own weight you know? So, where'd the toad go?"

Jason shook his head. "I don't know. It just vanished somehow. Like it has camouflage or something."

"THAT'S RIGHT!"

The sudden shout was accompanied by the reappearance of the Terror Toad as it faded into view right behind the two. The monster then wasted no time in knocking Harry and Jason away, sending them flying off in either direction with a powerful strike from its stubby arms. Harry landed roughly, bouncing and then rolling to a stop while cradling his right shoulder where he had been hit by the powerful reptile. He was sure that if it hadn't been for his magic making him harder to injure than an average human he would have probably broken something. As it was, he knew he had a huge bruise at the least.

Hearing a series of small explosions, Harry glanced up from his prone position in time to see the Terror Toad pummeling Jason with rapid fire blows, sending sparks flying in every direction.

He saw the Toad open its mouth and launch its tongue at the Red Ranger.

He saw it eat him.

Harry then felt a slight tug on his magical senses that he recognized as a spell he had recently cast being broken.

Then he heard the yell. "MAAAAAAAGELIIIIIIIIIIIIIIING!" Goldar was free and out for his blood.

As Harry lay there, only one thought came to mind. "Bloody Hell…"

-MR-

Thanks for reading and don't forget to review,

Tenstar12


	6. Chapter 6

Magi Ranger

By: Tenstar12

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or Power Rangers.

 **Chapter 6, In Which Harry Gets Thrown Around a Lot**

'Alright Potter, think!' Harry's thoughts raced as he climbed to his feet. 'It's just me against a bunch of bad guys, just like the Death Eaters back home. So treat this just like back then. I don't have a wand, so I'll need to use Battle Rhythm. It also wouldn't hurt to even the numbers a bit, so Transfiguration and Animation. And I need to do something about that toad's disappearing act. Tracking charm then. Right! Get to it.'

With a deep breath, Harry settled into a wide stance and started reaching for his magic again. If he had had a wand, or any focus really, it would have made the entire thing easier. A focus acted as a direct link to a wizard's magic and allowed almost instantaneous casting with the proper incantations and wand movements. Wandless magic on the other hand lacked that handy bridge, forcing the magic user to actively pull their magic up to the surface before it could be manifested in the spells.

Naturally, this was a problem if one was in a fast paced fight for one's life.

Moody and Dumbledore had, of course, taught Harry to use magic without a wand, but they also knew that he would most often use the skill after being disarmed during a battle. Without the speed granted by a wand, even the most powerful of wizards could lose to a comparatively weaker one of similar skill simply because they can cast more spells than the wandless one can respond to. The answer to this problem, created by a war wizard centuries before, was a technique of magical combat known as Battle Rhythm and had been the next logical step for Harry's education in magical combat.

The technique called for the user to have a deep connection to their magic that would allow them to manipulate it on a far greater level than most could ever imagine. The magic would then be caused to "bounce" as it were, rising and falling on its own and allowing the caster to use wandless magic with impunity, though the strength of the spells were determined by the height of the surge at the time of the casting. The more one trained in the technique and the better one got at it the faster the surges came and went, thus increasing the tempo of the "rhythm." It was an exhausting technique though, leaving the user physically drained after the surges were allowed to stop, and was best used only when in dire situations or vastly outnumbered.

Kind of like Harry was right now.

Another side effect of Battle Rhythm was that it brought a glowing aura into existence around the user that grew and shrank in time with the surges of magic. If the opponent knew about the technique it made it somewhat easier for them to predict when you would cast. If the opponent didn't know about it, it made for a somewhat intimidating light show.

So it was that as Harry reached down to his magic and gave it a _thrum_ as if springing a giant rubber band, Rita's forces opposite him recoiled slightly when he was immediately surrounded by a bright light that pulsed and receded every second or so.

The Terror Toad in particular had trouble as it managed to stumble and fall to its back in a reflexive attempt to get away. Taking advantage of the opportunity, Harry send a silent and colorless tracking charm to tag the downed monster so he would know where it was if it used its cloaking ability.

"You think a fancy light show will save you, Mageling?" Goldar taunted mere moments later, his bravado causing the putties to regroup as well. "The battle is all but over! Three of the rangers have been devoured and you cannot possibly hope to stand against all of us alone!"

Doing a quick headcount, Harry counted an even dozen putties twitching and stomping around Goldar and the once again standing Terror Toad. With a nod to himself, Harry began syphoning off a portion of magical energy from each upsurge, allowing it to refill from his core before taking still more and working it into the spell. "This battle is far from over, Goldar!" Harry shouted a few seconds later, spreading his arms to each side. "And I'm far from alone!"

In a visible wave of power, his collected magic spread from him and settled into the earth. Mere moments later, the earth began rumbling before multiple sections of dirt started rolling and contracting around a central point for several seconds, forming into vaguely humanoid shapes. After a few seconds, the figures started moving, climbing out of the craters they had been created from to stand in two ranks of seven between Harry and his foes.

The stone golems Harry had transfigured and animated from the earth around him stood around six feet tall. Their brown, stone skin gave the appearance of dense muscle but the occasional grain line or rough, craggy patch easily pointed to their earthen origin. Each of the humanoid faces stared straight ahead, reflecting no emotion in their glowing, molten red eyes as they stood nearly at attention before their creator.

"You think a few stone soldiers can stand up to the power of Empress Rita?" Goldar continued to taunt Harry, his simian face not showing anything clearly recognizable as fear or hesitation. "Putty Patrollers, ATTACK!"

With mindless obedience, the grey figures of Rita's frontline troops began charging, hopping, and tumbling forward at a respectable speed toward Harry and his golems. With a thought, Harry sent his soldiers forward as well.

The two forces met much closer to Harry than they were to Goldar and the Terror Toad, but that had more to do with the comparative slowness in his golems than anything else. All the same, what they lacked in speed, the golems made up for in strength and numbers over the putties. Nothing the putties did was able to do more than scratch their magically reinforced stone skin. No blow strong enough to even make them stagger back a single step.

And then they struck back.

Their attacks had none of the form and precision that existed in the putties own strikes. Since Harry didn't have any ability in hand to hand combat, his creations were the same. But their strength meant that all it took was one hit to stagger the grey creatures and it was all but done.

The first putty that failed to avoid a solid hit and went down was quickly set upon by the golem that had knocked it off its feet. The magical construct pinned it to the ground before it began melting into the earth it was made from, turning back into regular stone and effectively trapping Rita's creation in place.

When roughly half the putties had been restrained, Harry took his chance and disapparated, appearing a short distance behind Goldar with a near silent pop.

His disappearance was immediately noticed. "Stay alert!" Goldar roared to the toad. "The mageling has the ability to become invisible!"

The toad bobbed his entire body forward in what must have been a nod. "He can't hide from me! But I can hide from him!" With another obnoxious laugh, the monster's horn gave off a soft glow as it faded from view again.

Hoping to act before he was noticed, and before the toad moved too much, Harry got as close as he could to Goldar before casting on an upsurge. " _Expelliarmus_!" The spell splashed over the unsuspecting Goldar and sent him to the ground near the minion melee that was quickly coming to an end as his sword spun through the air. With his next surge, Harry used a summoning charm to pull the sword to his right hand and, using its momentum, spun around with it before releasing it right at the where his tracking spell said the Terror Toad was.

The toad screamed out its pain as the simian's sword crashed into it, unfortunately not point first, sending off a shower of sparks and making the reptile fall to the ground, luckily fading back into view at the same time.

Panting lightly from his rapid magic use, Harry slumped for a moment, surveying the battlefield. He knew that, at best, he was only delaying them. His golems had nearly finished taking the putties out of the equation, but they wouldn't stand a chance against the more fearsome opponents. Goldar was quickly climbing back to his feet, murder no doubt in his thoughts, and the Toad was flopping about as it tried to do the same with its stubby arms. If he didn't get some help soon then he wasn't going to have much option other than to resort to more damaging, combat oriented spells, which would tear him up as well. He didn't want to have to do that again so soon.

Harry didn't even want to think about what he'd do if even those spells failed.

Goldar's roar of rage broke him out of his thoughts as the monster charged directly at him, idly bashing Harry's two remaining golems to gravel with his bare fists on the way. "I'm tired of your games, Mageling!"

"And I'm not especially fond of you either, Goldar," Harry taunted before he started sending spells at the monster.

Goldar easily dodged the first few spells, swiftly stepping to one side or the other in mid charge, but it wasn't long before he got caught by a tripping jinx and went sprawling once more to the ground. So focused on Goldar, Harry didn't notice the Terror Toad's tongue until it had already wrapped around his right ankle.

"Ah bloody he-" Harry was cut off as the monster jerked his body backward, its arms grabbing his tongue and pulling at the same time. Harry was yanked off his feet and through the air toward the Toad's gaping maw.

"Like hell!" Harry shouted, casting franticly toward the monster, " _Reducto! Impedimenta! Flippendo!_ " It was his last spell that finally hit. The knockback jinx was cast on a downsurge and so it was only enough to shift the toad back a short distance, but it still managed to be enough for Harry to miss its mouth. Instead, he slammed into the monster's oversized belly, which had the side effect of breaking his fall and knocking the toad once more to the ground, its tongue releasing him on the way.

The landing was much rougher than Harry's already tired body was happy with and it took him several seconds to regain his equilibrium. This was time that the once more recovered Goldar wasn't willing to give him. "It's over, Mageling." Goldar growled as he grabbed him by his shirt collar with his left hand, easily lifting the wizard as he brandished his recovered sword is his right. "Now you die!"

"Let him go, Goldar!"

Harry's thoughts were only momentarily on the Rangers' tendency to show up and save him at the last second before Goldar spun him around and held him up against his chest plate in a one armed choke hold. "Stay back Rangers!" the simian shouted, pointing his sword at the morphed Billy and Kimberly, clearly no longer affected by the punk potion. "Or your magic using friend here pays the price."

With Goldar's attention diverted, Harry managed to twist his body just enough to apparate and pulled the monster along with him. The two vanished and reappeared ten feet to the side with a loud crack and Goldar immediately let him go as his body reacted to the uncomfortable experience. Taking his chance, Harry pushed himself away from Goldar, quickly Apparating to a spot next to the newly arrived rangers.

"Are you alright?" Kimberly asked immediately as Harry rubbed at his neck. "And what's with the lightshow?"

"Yeah," he responded, rolling his head around a bit to loosen up. "I'm alright, but you two definitely showed up at a good time. And this is a combat technique from my world. I'll explain later. Any ideas on freeing the others and beating these two?"

"Affirmative," Billy nodded, clenching his fist in front of his face as he did so. "Zordon told us the Terror Toad's weak spot. All we have to do is remove his horn and then hit him just below his neck. The horn is the source of his power too and it should weaken him enough to defeat him once everyone is free again."

"Oh, is that all?" Harry rolled his eyes, but still taking note of what Billy said. "Do you have a plan for that by any chance?"

"We've got it covered," Kimberly answered with her own nod. "Can you hold off Goldar for a second?"

Harry glanced over at the enraged simian, once more recovered and glaring, "Yeah sure, if you guys can hold off the toad I can probably take care of him for a minute or two." He cracked his knuckles and shook his hands out as he stepped up. "Alright, one rainbow of bullshit coming right up."

Harry didn't even wait for acknowledgement from the others before he started in. Since he had someone else to watch the other monster, he was able to give his full attention to Goldar. This meant that his casting speed increased greatly, both by casting out of both hands and because of his increased mental focus. Not so say he wouldn't be faster with a wand, but he was still sending a semi-constant stream of spells at the golden armored bane-of-his-existence-for-the-day.

Tripping Jinxes, knockback jinxes, impediment jinxes, light bludgeoners, even a few stunners that were spaced out enough to give him time to fight of the lethargy. Intermixed with these mostly offensive spells were a few more purely prank oriented spells: the jelly-legs jinx, the dancing charm, overpowered cheering charms, even a few color change spells and minor transfigurations for good measure.

Since he was too angry at this point to focus on dodging as well as he had earlier, Goldar didn't manage to gain more than five feet of ground toward him between randomly falling on his face, getting pushed backward or feeling impacts similar to a punch, and having his knees try to give out on him or start jerking uncontrollably. His increased anger and what had to have been some level of magical resistance kept most of the spells from affecting him for long, but everything at once was enough for a delay tactic.

By the time the Terror Toad let out a scream of rage and anguish over losing his horn, the once fearsome general of Rita Repulsa's army was standing in pink and purple polka dot armor with neon green skin and brandishing an oversized daisy in the place of his sword. He had dirt all over his front from his multiple faceplants and his armor was riddled with dings and dents from spell impacts.

"Now you've had it!" Kimberly shouted and Harry paused in his offensive and glanced over in time to see her fire an arrow from a pink and white bow that struck the Terror Toad just below its mouth. The monster let out another scream, this one of pain, as it fell to the ground. It mouth opened wide to release three balls of energy that flew away from it and hit the ground with a flash that revealed the three formerly trapped Power Rangers.

"What Happened?" Trini shouted, confusion in her voice.

"How'd we get out?" Jason spoke at the same time before spotting Billy and Kimberly and leading Zack and Trini over to them.

Goldar, seeing the tables turning once more, let out a growl. "I'll be back, Mageling, and next time you will not survive our encounter!"

Harry was cut off by Jason stepping in front of him while the others gathered around. "Not likely Goldar. You and Rita will never defeat the Power Rangers!"

Goldar merely vanished in a flash of light, taking the trapped putties with him. The Toad then once more caught their attention while it climbed to its feet. "Now I'm really angry!"

Harry, no longer casting and seeing that the rangers seemed to have things handled, doubled over with his hands on his knees and panting heavily. He felt a general ache and fatigue throughout his body as he let his Battle Rhythm slow to a stop, the magical aura around him fading as a result, and fought off a slight dizziness.

Meanwhile, the Power Rangers were grandstanding.

"You're going down, wart face!" Jason started, pointing his sword at the toad before holding it horizontally in front of his chest.

"And you're going down hard!" Billy followed, spinning a double ended blue lance before taking his own combat stance.

"You've had it fly breath!" Zack continued as he brandished his axe similarly to the other two.

"Give it up toad, you're gonna lose!" Trini finished up, spinning one of her yellow daggers around one finger before posing as well.

"Yeah… what they said…" Harry panted, one hand still on his knees as he weakly pumped the other in the air while trying to catch his breath. "Wooo… go us…"

The Terror Toad gave a cry of rage as he began charging toward the group. Trini and Zack responded by doing another of the ridiculously long leaps that the Power Rangers seemed to favor, coming down on the monster with their weapons and delivering powerful blows that sent sparks everywhere. Billy followed them in and delivered his own hits quickly followed by Jason, flipping through the air to make an overhead strike followed by a spin kick that knocked the toad through the air to crash into a tree.

Before the monster could recover, the Rangers regrouped. "Kimberly, Power Bow!" Jason called out.

"Right!" Kimberly nodded before pulling her randomly vanishing bow out from behind her back… somehow…

At this point, Harry was just confused. It certainly looked like it had just been conjured, but none of the Rangers had that kind of magical ability from what he had noticed.

The Pink Ranger then launched an arrow at the now standing Terror Toad. The arrow appeared to almost curve around intervening trees before landing solidly in the back of the monster's throat. The reptile's eyes widened as it gave a squeak of panic while random bolts of energy danced around it before it suddenly exploded.

Harry blinked.

Well, that was certainly abrupt… and rather anticlimactic in all honesty…

"Nobody messes with my friends." Kimberly taunted as the Rangers all struck a fighting pose around her.

Harry blinked again. "What in Merlin's name is going on here?"

"Harry!" Trini jogged the short distance to his side and put a hand on his shoulder. "Are you alright?"

"Oh sure," Harry said, slowly standing straight again as he caught his breath. "I'm just a tiny bit confused is all… What's with all the taunting and striking poses you guys were doing?"

Trini seemed slightly startled. "You know, that's actually not a bad question…"

By now, the other Rangers had gathered around, their weapons once more vanished. Kimberly was the one who spoke first. "What's a good question?"

"Why do we do all the poses and stuff when we're fighting?"

The other Rangers seemed just as startled as Trini had been. "I… I don't know…" Jason said slowly, shaking his head. "I've never actually thought about it…"

Before anyone could say anything else on the subject, a quick six-beep tone rang out from each of the Rangers. Jason responded first, lifting his left wrist up near his mouth. "We read you Zordon." Apparently it was some kind of communication method between the Rangers and the Command Center.

"Well done Rangers, teleport to the Command Center. Harry, Alpha will bring you along with them if you are agreeable." Zordon's voice came from Jason's general direction.

"Alright, Zordon. We're on our way." Jason lowered his hand from his face and looked at everyone else. "Ready guys?"

"Just a moment actually," Harry spoke up before lifting his left hand. " _Acio Horn_!" Mere moments later, the severed horn of the Terror Toad flew through the air and landed in his open palm with a soft smack.

"What's that Harry?" Zack asked.

"Is that the Terror Toad's horn?" Billy fired off right afterward. "Why would you want that?"

"I'll explain back at the Command Center. It would be easier to only have to go over everything once and Zordon and Alpha deserve to know too." Harry said with a soft smile. "Now then, ready when you are."

The Rangers seemed to look toward Jason who was staring at Harry for a moment before nodding hesitantly. "Alright, we can wait a bit longer. I'm sure it's a hell of an explanation." The slight hostility in Jason's voice didn't give Harry any comfort. "Let's go guys. Teleporting now!"

The six figures were once more engulfed in pillars of light before they lifted into the air and streaked off into the distance.

-MR-

When they arrived at the Command Center, Harry was expecting an almost immediate interrogation. What he got was movie time.

The Rangers first demorphed, their suits changing back into their regular clothes, including Billy and Kimberly into the "punk" clothes they had been wearing earlier. Almost immediately afterward, Kimberly nearly begged Harry to transfigure her clothing into something that didn't offend her normal sensibilities. Once he had managed to change her clothing into something similar to what he had seen her wearing at the amusement park, Billy asked for the same treatment.

When everyone was comfortable, Zordon directed them to the Viewing Globe where they all watched the battle that they had just finished. It was a rather useful learning tool all said and done. Zordon was able to point out a few points where the Rangers acted or hadn't acted that would have been more beneficial if they had done the opposite. It was the kind of thing that Moody had done for members of the Order of the Phoenix in the war against Voldemort. Zordon was just nicer about it and didn't shout about constant vigilance as much

Harry had given an explanation of his Battle Rhythm when prompted by Zordon and described his thought process when transfiguring his golems and in his spell choices. There wasn't much that Zordon could say to his actions since nobody else really knew what Harry could be capable of.

Finally, they got to the end of the battle where Harry had been holding off Goldar while Billy and Kimberly dealt with the Terror Toad. "Wow," Zack said with a laugh when he saw Goldar. "I didn't really get a good look at him before, but Goldar is really looking rather fabulous."

The other Rangers shared a laugh while Harry nodded. "I just wish my spell selection hadn't been so limited or I could have taken him out of the fight more decisively."

"You think you could have beaten Goldar with your magic?" Jason asked, his arms crossed and slight disbelief on his face.

Harry nodded, not really taking his eyes off the Viewing Globe which was now playing the Ranger's final defeat of the Terror Toad. "I partially crippled his combat effectiveness when I transfigured his sword, but nothing else really did more than annoy him. His armor may have protected him from some of my spells, but I'm confident that my more powerful spells could easily punch through and deal with him."

"Spells that you can't use right now because Rita has your wand, right?" Trini asked, her brow furrowed in concentration.

Harry nodded, "Yeah, and that does tie in quite nicely with your questions from after the battle doesn't it? Excuse me for a moment." Without waiting for a response, Harry twisted in place and apparated the short distance to his hidden room. He still didn't feel quite ready to reveal its presence to the Rangers and so he moved quickly to get the Pinoctopus vine from his trunk and apparate back out to the middle of the consoles in the main room.

"So it's like this." Harry started once the Rangers had gathered around him once more. "I know that my own ability to help against Rita's monsters is rather limited without a focus so I was trying to come up with an alternative. Jason, you severed a Pinoctopus vine that was trying to grab me and while you were destroying the monster in your giant robots I noticed that it had some residual magical energy in it. This most likely came from Rita using the Elder wand to empower the monster. The point is though, the magic within it was at least partially compatible with my own form of magic." Harry held up the coiled vine as he spoke

"So you feel that you may be able to create a new focus from parts of one of Rita's defeated monsters?" Zordon asked.

"Yes and no, Zordon," Harry responded. "It was common practice in my world to use parts of magical plants and animals in a wand, but the magical energy in the vine is really rather weak. I think what I'm going to have to do is collect as many different sources of magical energy as I can find and try and make a hybrid core of sorts so that it can handle my magic without extreme consequences."

"What kind of consequences?" Billy interjected, his face clearly showing interest.

Harry grimaced. "Best case failure? The wand just burns out or fails to work entirely. Worst case? It explodes and takes my hand with it." Seeing the looks of shock and concern on the Rangers' faces he quickly moved to elaborate. "But I'll be able to determine its compatibility before putting myself in a situation where that could happen."

Looking to change the subject, Kimberly spoke up next. "So that's why you grabbed the Toad's horn then, right? To have another sample to make your new wand?"

Harry nodded as he pulled the horn from a pocket, "That's right. This thing was the source of the Terror Toad's power, so it has a much more substantial amount of magic in it than the vine from the Pinoctopus does. I'll still probably need more samples, and maybe something of a more positive energy if possible. I have a feeling that a wand made only from Rita's monsters will be a bit more heavily inclined to Dark Magic than I'm comfortable with…"

"What about the Singing Squash?" Alpha interjected, unsteadily walking up while holding what looked like a hairy root. "Would this serve to help you create a focus? We only needed a sample of its juices to create the antidote for Kimberly and Billy and the rest will just end up going to waste."

Harry reached out to touch the strange plant and immediately felt a small rush of magical energy. He smiled as he took it from the robot. "Yes, this actually will help a bit. The energies are more neutral than anything else, but certainly closer to the light side of neutral. I may need to use more of this than other ingredients, but this could work to help balance out my focus, even though it doesn't have any of my own brand of magic in it. Thank you Alpha."

The robot seemed almost embarrassed as it backed away from Harry. "Aww… It was nothing…" He bumped into one of the consoles and quickly turned and began fiddling with the controls, probably just for something to keep himself occupied.

Harry chuckled at the robot good naturedly before Zordon got his attention once more. "Very well, Harry. If you need anything further to help craft your new focus please inform us. I'm sure we would be happy to add whatever we can to it."

After a round of agreement, most of the Rangers just eager to see what he could do with a wand, Zordon spoke again. "I understand that Harry had a question about your behavior during battle Rangers and that some of you expressed a similar curiosity. It is all very simple actually. I told you all that the Morphing Grid is sentient and influences those who use its power. It is this influence that causes you all to behave as you do while you are morphed."

"But why does it affect us like that? What's the point?" Trini asked.

"Alas I cannot say for certain. The only answer I have gotten from queries along these lines has been a general feeling of amusement. The Morphing Grid rarely deigns to communicate with anyone and when it does, it is always up for interpretation. In any case, I have some good news for you, Harry. Alpha has completed your new identity in this world. Whenever you are ready, he can give you the identification papers so that you can start to make your life outside the Command Center."

"Wait-wait-wait…" Zack stepped up, looking at Harry incredulously, apparently having disregarded the entire conversation about the Morphing Grid. "You mean to tell me you haven't even been out of the Command Center yet?"

Harry gave a cautious nod, "Aside from the carnival and the two monster fights, no. I've been here with Alpha and Zordon pretty much the whole time."

Zack's face would have been funny if Harry weren't so taken aback. The teen seemed offended on Harry's behalf. "Well, that settles it. As soon as you put your monster pieces away and get your ID, we're taking you to the Youth Center. If nothing else it'll be good for you to eat something other than peanut butter sandwiches."

-MR-

Angel Grove Youth Center, Gym, and Juice Bar. A rather large mouthful for the primary gathering place for most of the Angel Grove children and teens in the area. The place had it all: a sizable area designated as a gymnasium with various exercise machines around the periphery, a small arcade along one section of the wall, and a food court, all owned and operated by a rather happy man named Ernie.

The Rangers and Harry teleported to an alley behind the building before making their way in and immediately seating Harry at a table big enough for the six of them by the railing that separated the gym from the food court. Harry sat with the girls while Zack, Billy, and Jason went to speak with Ernie and get their food. Apparently, since each of the teens volunteered at the Youth Center teaching classes or tutoring other students they received some meals for free as long as they didn't take advantage of the privilege. They were all confident that Ernie would let them use this to treat Harry to a meal and a smoothie.

Harry smiled as he looked around. If one ignored the clack of weights and the sound effects from the arcade games, the Youth Center reminded him quite a bit of the Great Hall at Hogwarts during the holidays. When there were no classes to be had, many of the students would gravitate to the Hall to hang out with friends from other houses or just in an effort to get out of the common rooms.

It was actually somewhat comforting for the Man-Who-Won. He had known nothing but war and darkness for so long it was rather refreshing to be in a place that allowed him to relax a bit. Compared to his last few days of monster battles and magic, it was nice to be able to experience a place that was somewhat normal.

The boys quickly returned with food and smoothies for all and Harry eagerly ate his sub sandwich, more than thrilled at having some variety in his meals after so many days eating only peanut butter sandwiches. Now that he had identification, Harry was determined to return to the Youth Center more often, especially once he had more than a few dollars in loose change to his name.

Once everyone had eaten, the Rangers headed off to the locker rooms to change into more athletically appropriate clothing before moving out to the gym floor. Jason was lifting free-weights while Zack and Billy casually knocked a volleyball over an indoor net. Kimberly was walking Trini through a few gymnastic exercises, spotting her as Trini did handstands, flips, and the like that Harry had no illusion of being able to mimic himself.

"They're a pretty good group of kids. You picked some good friends to fall in with."

Harry turned from where he was watching the Rangers to see that Ernie had approached his table. The big man was wearing a Hawaiian shirt and loose black pants under his apron with a towel thrown over his shoulder as he smiled casually at the gym floor. He turned once more to face Harry and smiled. "So you're Harry, right? Name's Ernie. I run the place."

Harry shook Ernie's hand with a smile. "I am indeed. Harry Potter at your service."

"English, eh?" Ernie's smile grew slightly. "I can't say I've ever been to England, but I've heard good things from some of my friends who have."

Harry snorted. "And I'm sure any native would tell you that most of it is overrated."

Ernie laughed. "Most likely. I suppose it's all in the eye of the beholder. So how'd you get involved with those five?"

Harry shrugged, his mind racing. "I just kinda… ran into them one day and… we just clicked I guess. They're all rather fun to hang around, though this town is a bit on the crazy side…"

Ernie nodded. "Yeah, those five have been friends for years. They're all good kids. Helping out anyone who needs it all the time. Teaching all the classes and stuff around here. Jason teaches a Karate class and Zack teaches a dance class. Kimberly has aerobics and gymnastics that she teaches and Billy and Trini tutor students. I think Trini is looking to move into helping with Kimberly's gymnastics though. They've been doing a lot of that one-on-one stuff these last few weeks.

"And I can certainly understand your point of view on Angel Grove. Ever since Rita Repulsa started attacking us and the Power Rangers showed up things have been crazy. But the Rangers haven't let us down yet. Most of us here have just put our faith in them and try and tell any visitors to do the same. As long as the Rangers are around, everything will be alright. Have you gotten the chance to see them yet?"

Harry gave a slow nod as he processed what Ernie had told him. "I think I might have seen them a few days ago. I was at that carnival that Rita attacked and I saw some people in what looked like bright colored spandex."

Ernie nodded with a big smile. "That was probably them. They're real heroes I tell you. Not too many people like that now-a-days."

Ernie just stood there in silence for a few minutes as he and Harry just watched the kids and teens running around on the gym floor while Harry mused on Ernie laying praise on the same set of teens without realizing it. Finally, Ernie spoke again. "Well, I have to get back to work. This place has gotten so popular lately that I just don't have the time to mingle with everyone like I used to. It was nice meeting you Harry. I hope you enjoy your time here in Angel Grove."

"Thanks Ernie, don't work yourself too hard." Harry smiled as Ernie returned to his domain behind the food court counter. He seemed like a really good man. Had to be if he was willing to run a place like this for all the children of Angel Grove. Kinda like Hagrid… only shorter and less harry… and hopefully less likely to try and adopt a baby dragon…

Harry snorted at the mental image before he noticed a slight commotion taking place on the gym floor. Two guys, one incredibly large and wearing a leather jacket and jeans and the other incredibly skinny and wearing some kind of dress coat with grey and black camo pants, had walked up to Kimberly and Trini, both of whom had looks of disgust on their faces.

The skinny one walked up to Kimberly and wrapped one arm around her for a moment before she pushed her way free, her disgusted look only growing. Harry was debating on whether he should make his way over when he noticed Jason putting down his weights as he, Billy, and Zack moved to back the girls up themselves.

What followed made very little sense to Harry.

The two groups, the Rangers and the two new boys, exchanged several words with the newcomers showing more aggression though Harry was too far away to hear anything they said. Then, Billy held up the volleyball he and Zack had been using and the bigger one took it. The two newcomers moved to face off against Billy and Zack on the volleyball court. The bigger guy served, Zack set it into the air and Billy spiked it right onto the head of the skinny one who staggered around in an over exaggerated manner. The bigger guy, apparently trying to follow the ball, then crashed into the dazed skinny guy. They both somehow managed to crash into the net, pulling the poles down and getting themselves hopelessly tangled.

Everyone started laughing as the two struggled for a moment before slumping in surrender. It wasn't more than a few moments however until the Rangers moved to free the two from the net and stand it back up.

The two newcomers appeared to try and play it off as if they had meant to do it based on their body language and the high pitched laughter from the skinny one, but nobody really seemed to buy it as far as Harry could tell. After noticing this themselves, they tried to unobtrusively make their way out of the gym. They only managed to attract more attention, however, due to their less than stealthy attempts until they finally reached the exit.

Harry rolled his eyes as he took another drink of his smoothie and put the two strangers out of his mind for now. He needed to put some thought into what he was going to do now that he had an identity in this world. He knew he would be staying and working with the Power Rangers at least until he got the Elder Wand back, he refused to think of failure there, but what about afterwards? Without the boost from the Elder Wand would the Rangers even need his help defeating Rita's monsters? He didn't know the answer for sure, but he needed to keep the possibility in mind.

As he was now he would flounder and collapse if he tried to make his way in society without help from the Rangers and Zordon both financially and otherwise. After living so long in the Magical World in his home dimension, he had no clue as to the daily nuances of non-magical life, and the disenchanting of the Galleons was going nowhere fast. Without a focus to help remove the Goblin enchantments it was like trying to pick up a grain of rice with a tiny pair of tweezers while looking through an out of focus camera. Without the gold, he had no assets besides what he himself could find or create. Using magic to summon lost money wouldn't hold up in the long run.

He needed to find a way to support himself just in case he was left without that help to rely on.

-MR-

AN: The comment on Harry using a "Rainbow of bullshit" comes from another fanfiction. "Jamie Evans and Fate's Fool" is an amazing story that I feel uses magical combat as it should have been. Random Transfigurations and crazy combat magics like I've never read before in a story. On top of that, there's no digging through faux-latin and such. Just a vague description of the spell that's not more than a line or two and is always in context and then pure awesome. Fun story to read all things considered and one I highly recommend. Word of caution though, it may not be overt in its descriptions, but there is adult content in the story and an admittedly unusual pairing. You have been warned.

Anyway, don't forget to read and review.

Tenstar12


	7. Chapter 7

Magi Ranger

By: Tenstar12

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or Power Rangers.

 **Chapter 7, In Which Time Skips Ahead a Little Bit and Trouble Grows on the Horizon**

"No."

"But Harry…"

"No."

"Come on man, just…"

"No."

"But I thought we agreed…"

"There was no agreement involved on my part. We were discussing martial arts experience and I told you all I never had the opportunity to learn anything growing up. Then you decided that I was going to learn and the topic moved on before I got any more say in it. I really don't want to learn karate. I'm sorry, but I just don't have the interest or drive to make it a worthwhile effort on my part."

It had been three weeks since the Terror Toad was dispatched and Harry first ventured into the more public areas of Angel Grove. It was a time of general normalcy for Harry, but that wasn't because Rita has been idle, oh no.

It was because Harry had, for various reasons, been largely unable to help the Rangers in their battles.

The first instance had been four days after the toad, on Saturday. The Youth Center was gearing up for a dance that evening and the Rangers, plus Harry, were helping decorate. The two guys who had accosted Kimberly and Trini, who Harry had found out were the Bulk and Skull that Zack had mentioned, caused a disturbance when Bulk decided to try and ride a skateboard through the Youth Center. This proved to be a bad idea when he crashed into Ernie and the oversized cake he was carrying at the time.

During the craziness as Ernie kicked the two out of the Youth Center, Billy literally bumped into a girl named Marge. As it turned out, Marge was another brainy type like Billy. Zack described it as a match made in heaven and Harry couldn't help but agree. Especially as the two had a similar level of vocabulary so they could understand each other without having to have someone like Trini there to translate which would have killed the entire potential romance from the get go.

The two had agreed to go to the dance that evening together and decided to rendezvous a few hours beforehand. The problem was Marge didn't show, and when Billy did he was attacked by putties.

After Harry and the other Rangers helped Billy, Zordon revealed that Rita's latest servant, a sorceress named Madame Woe, had captured Marge and was holding her in another dimension. The Rangers immediately went to rescue her, but Harry couldn't come along because he didn't have a fool proof way to protect his identity like the Rangers did. Apparently, apart from hiding their physical features, the Rangers' suits were empowered by the morphing grid with a kind of misdirecting magic. This aura prevented anyone from drawing a connection between the Rangers and their teenage secret identities unless they were to openly tell them or morph in front of someone in plain sight.

So Harry had to sit out the battle because of Marge's presence.

Despite things being rather tense as the Rangers were almost immediately captured in Madame Woe's pocket dimension, everything worked out in the end. Madame Woe was defeated, Marge was freed, and Billy got to take the girl to the dance that evening. Billy had even managed to salvage some of the sapphire dust that had once been the source of Madame Woe's power before he had crushed the stone to free the others. He passed this highly magical substance on to Harry for use in his new wand.

Harry had given the dance a miss, preferring to stay at the Command Center and work on his magical projects, though from the stories he was told by the Rangers the next day, mostly involving Bulk and Skull making fools of themselves again, he almost wished he had gone.

The following Wednesday, Kimberly had made plans to go flying with her pilot uncle, Steve. Of course Rita capitalized on this by slipping the man a sleeping potion that caused him to pass out mid-flight. This required Kimberly to fly the plane herself under Alpha's guidance via communicator, a task she was eventually able to do successfully.

Harry had initially offered to try and guide the plane down with magic, but apparently Bulk and Skull were also onboard, having talked their way into joining the flight before Kimberly could convince her uncle otherwise. Since those two were not guaranteed to stay unconscious by a sleeping potion (they had apparently fainted shortly after Steve lost consciousness) Zordon didn't want Harry to risk revealing his abilities near them.

While Kimberly was having her troubles in the sky, Zack was apparently having troubles of his own. The Black Ranger had later regaled Harry with the tale of the love of his life, a girl named Angela, whom he had finally spoken to at the Youth Center that day.

Jason had then told everyone about how Angela had shut him down rather abruptly from the get go, much to Zack's chagrin.

Taking advantage of Kimberly's plight, Rita sent a monster known as the Snizard, some kind of strange snake/lizard hybrid, to attack the city. It was overwhelming the Rangers with several smaller snakes that were wrapped around them, restraining them while draining their energy until Harry convinced Zordon to let him help. Wearing a full body cloak and hood he had transfigured to at least partially hide his identity from bystanders, Harry apparated in and used his Parseltongue talents and a few compulsion charms to free the Rangers and gain control of the monster.

The Snizard had then given him the "Zapple Apple" which was a metal sculpture shaped like an apple that rested on top of its head and was the source of much of its power. Without the Apple, the other Rangers were able to destroy the monster with little difficulty once it broke free from Harry's control and long before Kimberly landed her uncle's plane at Angel Grove Airport.

It was actually this battle that had led to Billy, with a vote of support from the other Rangers, crafting Harry his own communicator. Even Jason, despite his general distrust of Harry, had agreed that his abilities could be helpful and being able to get ahold of him immediately would be a good idea, just in case.

The first one Billy made didn't last beyond the first spell Harry cast. The magical energy channeled through his arm for wandless casting easily shorted out the sensitive electronics in the watch. In fact, it took three more designs before Billy (with some help from Alpha) managed to make a properly shielded one so that Harry could still use his magic while wearing it, having taken cues from similar protections on the equipment in the Command Center.

On the next Saturday, Trini had brought the five others to the Youth Center to meet her Uncle Howard. The man was apparently a genius chemist as well as a world renowned martial artist. Trini had hoped that her uncle could help Billy, especially since he had been assaulted by Bulk and Skull that very day when they were trying to get more money for arcade games and his self-confidence was flagging.

Uncle Howard had recently made a strange and powerful chemical that gave the means for anyone or anything that came into contact with it to become invisible. Desiring the formula for herself, Rita decided to take it. She sent a monster known as the Dark Warrior, a kind of knock off ninja, to kidnap Trini's uncle and obtain the formula.

The "karate scientist," as Billy called him, was kidnapped by putties while he was helping Billy train to "focus his martial arts skills to sharpen his mental energies." The Blue Ranger reported the kidnapping to the others as soon as he could.

Harry had to stay at the command center during the rescue mission because of Uncle Howard this time. The man was forgetful, but Harry's magic would certainly stand out enough for him to remember it. Then, once the Rangers freed Howard, Rita grew the Dark Warrior and forced the Rangers to call their robots (Zords, Zordon explained) to battle him before Harry could act, meaning he was once again out of the loop.

After the monster was defeated, Billy, having rejoined Jason's karate class just before meeting Trini's uncle, earned his Yellow Belt and was immediately set upon by Bulk and Skull. Howard used some of his invisibility formula to scare them away from Billy by making them think that the brainy teen was beating them down with just his mind.

All in all it was rather amusing. Harry could easily see why people found the random and varied misfortunes that befell Bulk and Skull so funny. Their reactions were simply priceless.

Howard had taken Harry aside after Bulk and Skull left. The two had spoken for some time, just general conversation as far as he could tell, and afterward Howard had gone back over to Trini. Whatever he said to her had made her blush rather spectacularly before she hugged the man and he left.

The final instance was on the next Thursday. Billy had devised and constructed some kind of mind reading device. The entire thing was rather unimpressive to Harry, but then again he had been exposed to Legilimency years before so mind reading was rather old for him.

The experiment was doomed to failure however as Rita apparently had Squat, the fat blue creature Harry had noticed during the Pincotopus attack, sabotage the device and when Billy and Kimberly attempted to use it they switched bodies instead of being able to read each other's minds. Billy and Kimberly spent the next 24 hours or so in an incredibly awkward attempt to get through a day in the other's life with minimal success. Luckily for them, the problem with the machine was easily fixed in the end, despite Rita sending a magical Genie to make another attempt to destroy them.

The battle had been rather difficult. The Genie initially wiped the floor with the Rangers, entrapping them in a web like substance and almost annihilating them within a few seconds of their first encounter. They were saved at the last second, however, when Alpha teleported them back to the command center. After some advice and direction from Zordon, and after Harry collected some of the excess webbing stuck to their suits, the rangers headed back out to fight once more only for Rita to grow the Genie as soon as they reached it.

The monster was too powerful for the Rangers to defeat with the Megazord (the humanoid robot that their dinosaur robots combined to make) and they were nearly beaten before Zordon, Alpha, and Harry (mostly Zordon and Alpha) managed to destroy the magic lamp that provided the Genie with his power. With his lamp gone, the Genie vanished just before making the finishing blow on the Megazord, signifying another victory for the Power Rangers. Even if this one was closer than any of them liked.

And so it came to the current day. It was the Saturday after the Genie / body swapping incident and the Youth Center was hosting the Angel Grove Martial Arts Expo, which the group was heading toward so Jason could compete in a tournament. The Rangers had decided to use this opportunity to segue into Harry needing to take some kind of martial arts lessons, specifically Jason's karate class. They were citing the conversation, such as it was, that Harry had had with Jason, Zack, and Trini while Billy and Kimberly were punked.

Harry failed to see the relevance and made sure they knew that.

"Hey, leave Harry alone guys," Jason spoke up, surprising Harry with his support.

Then the Red Ranger continued talking. "He probably just doesn't want to have to learn from someone younger than him. And if he doubts he can do it, then he won't be able to succeed anyway."

Jason had been saying passively aggressive things like this almost since the moment they had met and it had only gotten worse after the Rangers handled a few monsters without his help. Harry knew exactly what was going on: Jason was intimidated by Harry. They were both natural born leaders, but Harry had already been through his crucible in the form of the war against Voldemort. Jason was a boy scout and his idealism and enthusiasm over his chance at being a "super hero" were not enough to stand before Harry's cold cynicism and experience forged in the fires of his own war. So Jason lashed out to try and maintain his position as leader of the team, a position that Harry in no way coveted, and Harry was forced to deal with it more than half the time the two spoke.

This time, Harry decided to try and explain. It might at least get the rest of the group to lay off for a while. "You're not that much younger than I am, Jason. Not even a full year truthfully. And I more than recognize that you are a capable teacher. The fact that you have as many successful students as you do makes that very clear. I also recognize that you can quite easily kick my sorry ass from one side of Angel Grove to the other and back so it isn't a question of your personal karate skills either. The thing is, the way I fight doesn't need martial arts to work. If I tried to learn anything like that, it could throw off everything I already know and that could cost me in a battle. It could cost all of us if I hesitate or try to do too many things at once. With everything on my plate right now I just don't have the time or desire to dedicate myself to learning karate."

Kimberly and Trini exchanged a slightly distressed look before the Pink Ranger turned back to him with a pleading expression. "At least think about it, won't you Harry? Just as a potential option?"

"Yes," Billy added, "Remember that I was hesitant to reenroll myself in Jason's Karate class, but I'm having a great deal more success than I had thought possible and it has greatly aided me in our battles against Rita."

Seeing him start to waver, Trini put a hand on his shoulder, bringing the entire group to a stop as Harry and Trini did. "Please, Harry. We just don't want you to need to know how to defend yourself without magic and not have it."

Harry ran his eyes over the other rangers, seeing Zack nod to him, Billy's supportive glance, Jason's carefully neutral mask, and Kimberly and Trini showing concern in their eyes finally broke him. "Alright, alright," he sighed. "If it makes you feel better I'll consider it. Maybe once I finish my focus project I'll be able to join Jason's class."

The girl's smiles and Jason's careful eye roll showed that the discussion was tabled for now as the Rangers and Harry once more started toward the Youth Center. Conversation changed to other, more mundane things as they walked. Zack and Jason were discussing potential competition for the Red Ranger at the martial arts tournament while Billy listened intently and the girls stayed at the back of the group, whispering between themselves.

It wasn't much longer after that before the group arrived at the Youth Center, unusually crowded due to the events of the day. Once they got inside, the group split up, Harry heading to the juice bar while the Rangers went with Jason so he could register to compete.

Once at the bar, Harry was immediately spotted by Ernie. "Harry!" The friendly man shouted, getting his attention. Once he got closer, Ernie continued. "You're sure you don't mind watching the counter for me during the tournament?"

Harry smiled. "It's fine Ernie. I know how excited you are seeing as you took particular care to arrange it. Go get yourself a good seat."

"Great," Ernie smiled back, nearly dancing in excitement. "Everything should be stocked and ready and if someone asks for something that isn't, you can get it from the back room. I'm going to go see if I can still find a ringside seat." With that, the man rushed off, nearly bowling over several teens in his excitement.

Harry shook his head good-naturedly at Ernie's over enthusiastic departure. The man had helped Harry a great deal these past weeks, but he was still quite the character. In fact, less than two weeks after first meeting him, the day after the Snizard had attacked, Ernie had given Harry a job.

It wasn't much really, just having Harry around to help run the juice bar when it got exceptionally busy, but it was almost exactly what Harry needed. For Harry, having a job, even one as relatively simple as this, gave him an eventual excuse for the money he would have once he got his Galleons de-charmed and started selling them. For now though, the limited income kept him from having to summon loose change all the time.

Ernie trained him to use the register and keep the different products stocked and was in the process of teaching Harry how to prepare the various items on the menu along with the other tasks that came along with maintaining the Youth Center. The only strange part in Harry's mind was in how flexible Ernie was on his hours. Harry had never had a regular job in his original world, but he was still familiar enough with the concept to know that Ernie was being incredibly lenient when he told him to "just come in whenever you want to work." He then gave Harry a long, measuring look and told him "if anything ever comes up while you're working, you can leave on a moment's notice. I always plan on being here too, so you just let me know and you can take off." He had then looked him in the eyes and repeated "anything" with extra emphasis.

Slight strangeness aside, the lack of mandated work hours and leniency of his boss would certainly come in helpful whenever a monster attacked and he was needed to help the Rangers fight it off.

Harry had been coming in to work whenever he could, usually arriving just before school let out and the initial crowd showed up on weekdays or a bit before noon on weekends. He was very much looking forward to his first paycheck which was due on the upcoming Friday. It might not have much on it since it would only be for the single day he'd worked the previous week, but it was money that he earned himself as opposed to having summoned it with magic.

Snapping out of his thoughts as a customer approached the bar, Harry filled a few orders as the sounds of the tournament beginning hit his ears. His time cooking the Dursleys' food had made him rather uniquely suited for working at a place like the Youth Center Juice Bar, not that he would ever thank his relatives for it even if the opportunity did somehow present itself. The mindless motions of food preparation that had once been so familiar to a younger Harry Potter allowed his mind to drift once more as his body ran on autopilot, this time to his wand crafting experiments.

He had discovered rather quickly that he was correct in assuming the dark taint to the magical signatures of the items he had collected for his wand. With the exception of the Singing Squash, each of the items he had collected were at least somewhat more aligned to darker magics than he would like. Ironically enough the most powerful such item, the dust from Madame Woe's sapphire focus, was the least dark while the Genie's web-like substance was the most.

This left him with the task of finding something more to balance out the energies in his future wand. After a week of pondering the topic, Harry had decided that instead of trying to make it more neutrally aligned, he would try and make it more specifically aligned to him. In theory, if the wand was linked more closely to him, the magical alignment of the focus wouldn't matter quite as much.

This led to Harry adopting a nightly ritual of gathering a sample of his blood and placing it under stasis charm before bed. He was unable to gather too much at once as he couldn't use wandless magic to heal any substantial wounds that would be needed for a sufficient bloodletting and the nature of blood magics required a certain level of risk and sacrifice that made using medical equipment to easily gain a sufficient amount a non-option, but he was making progress nonetheless. Combined with Alpha having gathered a selection of holly branches from various sources, Harry was hopeful he would be able to start on the actual crafting of his wand soon.

It would be good for him to feel closer to his full ability again.

Harry spent the next thirty minutes or so listening to the progressing martial arts tournament, catching occasional glimpses when he was able to look up from his work as the ring for the matches was easily visible from where he was. Even if Harry wasn't personally interested in learning any martial arts at the present time that didn't mean that he didn't enjoy watching others practice it.

From what he had been able to gather, there were sixteen competitors in the tournament. This meant that there would be four rounds of elimination competition. Each fighter was awarded a point by the judge whenever they landed a solid hit on their opponent or when their opponent stepped out of bounds. Whichever fighter had the most points at the end of each two minute round would move on to the next fight.

Most of the fights had been rather evenly matched, the only exceptions being in the case of two particular individuals. One of these two was Jason, who had been in one of the first fights and was steadily working his way up the left side of the bracket. This was rather unsurprising since the teen was considered good enough to teach karate. It only made sense that he would be a top contender in such a tournament. The other was, according to a few of the High School students gossiping near the bar, a new student who had just moved to the area named Tommy Oliver. He was clearly a fantastic martial artist as his fast and powerful strikes quickly overwhelmed most of his opposition fairly easily. He was working his way up the right side of the bracket and seemed a shoo-in for the finals as well.

-MR-

Around an hour after the tournament began, a short intermission was called before the finals featuring, as expected, Jason Scott and Tommy Oliver.

Harry was moving quickly to help the sudden influx of customers during the lull in the excitement when Zack and Kimberly appeared at the counter. "Hey Harry," Zack called. "How about a bottle of water for our soon to be tournament champion friend."

Harry turned briefly from where he was mixing a smoothie for another customer. "You know I love you guys Zack, but you're gonna have to wait your turn too." With a roll of his eyes, Harry turned his focus back to the mixer, but Zack was not to be denied.

"Come on man, help us out here. Kimberly, back me up here… Kimberly?"

The Pink Ranger was apparently not paying the slightest bit of attention to Zack and Harry's conversation, such as it was. Instead, she had turned her back to the counter, leaning against it almost casually, and was staring with a slightly blank look on her face back toward the tournament ring.

"Yo! Earth to Kimberly!" Zack said, waving his hand in front of Kimberly's dazed face. Harry just snorted in amusement and continued preparing orders.

Kimberly let out a soft squeak before turning toward Zack. "Sorry about that. What were you saying?"

Zack merely shook his head slowly. "Are you alright Kim? You seemed a little zoned out there for a minute."

"Yeah, I'm fine," Kimberly waved one hand airily as she spoke. "I was just… I'm fine."

Zack raised an eyebrow. "Right… Anyway, I was telling Harry that he should help us out here. Support the team and all that."

"Alright, is that all for you guys?" Harry smoothly slid over to Zack and Kimberly and put a chilled bottle of water on the counter, having dealt with the rest of the customers waiting while the two Rangers had their short discussion.

Kimberly blinked at Harry before turning to Zack. "He seems rather eager to help to me."

Zack let out an overly dramatic groan before shooting a smirk at her. "Well if you hadn't been so busy eyeballing the competition then you might've known what I meant."

Harry fought down a smile as Kimberly's face turned bright red. "I have no idea what you're talking about." She said after a moment before grabbing the bottle and starting back toward the ring. "Come on, Zack. Pay the man and let's go."

Zack just chuckled and smiled at Harry as he dug out his wallet. "Women, man. Am I right?"

Harry rolled his eyes as he took Zack's money and handed back his change. "She's got it bad, doesn't she?"

Zack put his money away and called back over his shoulder as he started after the retreating Pink Ranger. "You have no idea, Harry."

Laughing a bit, Harry finished up his last few orders as the rush died off and everyone headed toward the ring again, eager for the final match of the tournament. Harry had just finished cleaning up the last of the mess when the tournament announcer/judge spoke up again. "Ladies and Gentlemen, it is time now for the final round of our Martial Arts Tournament. Competitors Jason Scott and Tommy Oliver, please enter the ring!"

Finding his interest had finally been peaked, Harry shifted around until he found a spot along the counter where he could observe the upcoming match through the crowd. In all honesty and as petty as it was, Harry would not have been upset to see Jason lose the match, what with the teen's general hostility toward him since he had first arrived in the dimension. He knew, however, that it would take quite the fighter to be able to match Jason's skills, sharpened as they were in combat against Rita's forces.

"Fighters ready?" The judge called out as he looked first to Jason and then to Tommy, receiving a nod from each in turn. "Fighting Stance!" The two teens took their preferred stances, both looking rather similar to Harry's untrained eye, though Tommy looked to be standing a bit lower than Jason. Seeing the two teens were ready, the judge brought his hand down between them. "Hajime!"

The two teens immediately began moving, attacking and counterattacking in a rather easygoing manner. It took the first thirty seconds of the match before Harry realized they were testing each other, feeling out what the other fighter was capable of. Shortly after he came to that realization, Tommy struck out with a lightning fast kick, knocking Jason to the mat. Moving quickly, Tommy crouched down by him and delivered a punch to his torso.

"Alright, back to center!" The judge quickly intervened and the two teens moved back to their sides of the mat. "Judge's call, one point!" The judge motioned toward Tommy and a scoreboard on the wall behind them changed to reflect the score. "Fighting Stance! Hajime!"

This time Jason was clearly being the more aggressive of the two. Tommy seemed rather caught off guard as he was quickly forced out of bounds, resulting in the judge calling them back to center and awarding Jason a point.

When the fighting resumed again, the match was half over and it was clear that both fighters were now ready to step up their games.

Initially, Jason pressed his attack again with a quick step forward and a spin kick that Tommy easily ducked under. Trying to take advantage of this, the green clad fighter tried to kick Jason's legs out from under him. Luckily, Jason had recovered from his kick enough to backflip over the attack and away from his opponent. Standing once more, Tommy quickly advanced on Jason, launching into his own tornado kick and continuing into another when Jason ducked under it. After the third such kick, Jason launched a side kick, landing a solid blow to Tommy's stomach and bringing the judge in to award Jason a point as Tommy fell to the mat.

The next exchange started with Jason launching a flying kick that Tommy sidestepped as he moved forward, essentially switching their places on the mat. Jason moved in quickly, trying to use his foot to hook Tommy's legs out from under him, but Tommy merely mimicked Jason's own move from earlier and backflipped over the attack. Jason then tried to follow up with a tornado kick, but Tommy ducked the attack before catching Jason's uplifted leg with his own and taking them both to the mat with Tommy in a superior position, ending in him getting another point.

Harry caught sight of the other Rangers standing in Jason's corner as the Judge reset the two fighters. They were looking rather uneasy all things considered. Apparently they had hoped Jason would have an easier time of the match and Tommy's skill was catching them off guard. Though based on her earlier behavior, Kimberly could be worried on Tommy's behalf instead of Jason's. The thought made Harry chuckle to himself as he shook his head slowly. Ah, young love.

The third exchange of the second half of the match started with an almost expected tornado kick from Tommy that Jason ducked before shifting around behind him, once more switching their positions. Before Jason could react further, Tommy moved in again with a flurry of blows that clearly caught the Red Ranger off guard as he was almost easily taken down to the mat and received a blow to the chest for his efforts. It took Jason a moment longer to rise again after this blow but he still dutifully made his way back to his side of the mat for the judge to restart the fight as the clock continued to wind down.

This time, Tommy easily ducked under Jason's kick before pressing his advantage yet again. He launched another series of kicks followed by another flurry of punches that served to force Jason out of bounds as he tried to avoid them, earning Tommy another point.

By this time the other Rangers were clearly distressed as Jason was down by two points now. They began shouting what Harry assumed were calls of encouragement to their friend and team leader, though Harry couldn't hear exactly what they were saying from the juice bar.

Jason started the next exchange with another pair of tornado kicks. Tommy almost seemed resigned to it at this point as he ducked under the first two but was caught off guard when Jason switched tactics. Instead of a third spinning kick, Tommy ended up ducking right into a strong side kick that caught him in the chest and knocked him to the mat. The judge quickly moved in again, resetting the fighters and awarding the point to Jason.

With only five seconds left, Harry could tell that Jason was feeling the pressure. Tommy moved in first in what would be the final exchange of the fight, leading with a straight kick that Jason deflected followed by a hooking punch that he ducked. Jason then stood quickly, bringing his foot up to land in Tommy's stomach followed by another quick kick to his chest.

Harry's eyes narrowed as he felt the slightest pulse of power coming from the second hit that lifted Tommy into the air a few feet. Tommy flipped over in the air before crashing back down to the mat where Jason landed a solid punch to his stomach just as time ran out and a bell rang signifying the end of the round.

The wizard crossed his arms and sighed as the judge awarded Jason another point and declared the final match a draw. He seriously doubted that Jason had intentionally channeled any Ranger Power into his attack, but the fact remained that it had happened. That it could happen at all was rather troubling in the first place though. He resolved to keep an eye on things and perhaps have a word with Zordon about it.

He was broken out of his thoughts when Billy, Kimberly, Zack, and Trini came up to the counter with rather glum looks on their faces.

Zack was first to speak up. "Man, did you see that? Jason almost had it!"

"Are you sure you were watching the same fight?" Harry responded with a teasing smile as he walked closer to them. "From my point of view it looked like Jason made an incredible comeback in the last ten seconds of the match just to pull off that tie. That Tommy guy was really good."

Billy nodded but said nothing as Zack leapt to his friend's defense. "And if it had gone on another ten seconds Jason would have won!"

Harry raised his arms in a placating gesture. "I'm just saying, Zack, Tommy put up more of a fight than Jason was expecting. They both put on a good showing either way."

Ever the peacemaker, Trini spoke next. "Yeah, and now maybe Jason can work out a way to have a sparring partner more on his level. I know that none of us have ever been able to stand on even ground with him like that."

Zack seemed to consider that for a moment before his smile returned. "Hey, you're right! Maybe now we won't end up bruised as much when Jason needs his practice."

"Is it that bad?" Harry asked with concern in his voice.

"No, no," Zack quickly said, realizing how it had sounded. "Jason is just way more skilled than the rest of us. Some of what you learn in any martial art becomes a reflex and you act before you think. That has happened to each of us a few times when we spar with Jason. He acts before he thinks when he gets in the zone."

"Ah," Harry nodded. "I can kinda see where that could be a problem. It was that way for me when I was being taught back… er… back home. One of my teachers in particular, a guy named Moody, was of a school of thought that suggested holding back only taught bad habits. I can't tell you how many injuries I got out of… ah… sparring with him."

Harry's brow creased as he glanced around for listeners while the Rangers chuckled at him. It wasn't easy keeping things secret while talking in public and still getting the message across.

"Don't worry Harry," Trini assured him in a whisper. "You get used to the doubletalk and such after a while. It gets easier with practice."

Harry shot her a small smile. "You would think that I'd be used to this kind of thing, but since my war was almost completely in secret… Well, I didn't really spend time around many people who weren't in on the whole thing anyway."

Conversation drifted from that point. There was a bit more speculation on whether or not Tommy might be willing to be Jason's sparring partner if asked, but soon the Rangers began discussing school and projects while Harry had to help an occasional customer until Ernie returned. By the time Jason joined the group, freshly showered and back in his everyday clothes, Zack was back to less-than-subtly teasing Kimberly about her apparent attraction to Tommy while Billy remained oblivious and Trini frowned slightly.

Declining an invitation to join the Rangers in the park, Harry resumed working. He put his thoughts about Jason's fight on a back burner for the time being. It was no use worrying about it until he had a chance to talk to Zordon.

-MR-

As it turned out, there was absolutely nothing to worry about. According to Zordon, random bursts of morphing energy were somewhat common with teams of Rangers in the past. Whenever a Ranger was distressed or being pushed to or beyond their limits, they might call upon the power subconsciously. It had happened before and never in an obvious way. In fact, if it weren't for Harry's own sensitivity to magical energies he may not have even noticed it. The point though was that Jason likely didn't even realize what had happened and both Zordon and Harry agreed that informing him, or any of the Rangers for that matter, would serve no constructive purpose.

The last thing Harry needed or wanted was to give Jason another reason to dislike him and accusing him of cheating may turn the entire team against the dimensionally displaced wizard.

So, with his thoughts put to rest, Harry headed back to his room and continued work on his new wand. Thus far he had reduced the Pinoctopus Vine and the Singing Squash down to a few long threads of plant matter with as much of their inherent magics concentrated into them as possible. The Genie's webbing was already rather magically charged and Madame Woe's power crystal was nicely crushed into a find powder so those two components were as prepared as they could be. That left the Terror Toad's horn and the Zapple Apple to deal with.

Harry already had something of an idea for how to construct this wand. First he would have to find which of the holly branches resonated with him the best. Then, he would carve out the body of the wand and hollow out the center, most likely by splitting it vertically in half and trusting in his magic to fuse it together again after the fact. The plant fibers and webbing would then be bundled with several lengths of his own hair tying them together and then coated in a paste-like mixture of his blood, the crushed sapphire and some of the toad's horn, ground to a similar consistency. The metal of the Zapple Apple was highly conductive for magical energies, so he was planning on melting it down and lining the hollow of his future wand with this metal before placing the core bundle and sealing it together.

It would end up being a rather rough job once he finished and would likely give a real wandcrafter a heart attack if one were to see it, but in theory it would result in a working magical focus.

Shaking his head, Harry put his thoughts aside and, sitting at his desk, pulled the horn closer. He would have to cut or break several sections off of it before grinding it with a transfigured mortar and pestle to get the proper consistency to use it.

With a sigh, Harry got to work.

-MR-

Harry worked on a small piece of the Terror Toad's horn for the rest of the evening, finding the substance surprisingly resilient to his efforts. He had managed to grind it down enough to make use of it, but the amount yielded was far less than he would have liked for the time and effort put into it. This task would continue all throughout the following day, leaving Harry to collapse Sunday night with the majority of his work on the horn done, but with his body expressing its disapproval quite acutely.

Waking somewhat later than usual on Monday morning, Harry broke his fast before deciding to jump right back into it, working on what should be the final necessary section of horn despite his arms and shoulders still screaming from the exertion. It was the biggest downside of wandcrafting like this, you couldn't use magic to directly create or prepare any part of it or run the risk of ruining that particular component. It was actually the main reason that more people didn't make their own wands from what Moody had told him. They instead relied on pre-made wands like Ollivander's even though personally designed ones had a good chance of being better matched to each witch or wizard.

Harry had nearly finished his work at four in the afternoon when Zordon contacted him on his communicator and asked him to come out to the main room.

Eager for a break despite how close he was to being done, Harry quickly made his way out. "What's going on, Zordon?"

"Thank you for coming, Harry. I fear there may be a problem in Angel Grove and none of the Rangers are available to investigate it." Zordon's reply was somewhat grim and it set Harry on edge, his finely honed sense of danger telling him things were about to get bad.

"Sure," he nodded. "I can check it out for you. Where do you need me to go?"

"Our sensors indicated the presence of a group of putty patrollers appeared in an alleyway near Angel Grove High School a short time ago. Before we could take any action, the signal vanished. Then, moments after, a very powerful magical signature indicated that a spell was cast, most likely by Rita herself. I would ask that you investigate this alleyway for any clues as to what may have happened."

Harry nodded, "Alright, I can do that. But how do we know that she wasn't setting some kind of a magical trap for one of us to set off?"

Zordon's face only seemed to grow more troubled. "Because, Harry, the magical signature was that of a very powerful teleportation spell, but one to take something away from Earth, not bring something here."

Harry's eyes narrowed. "You think she kidnapped someone? One of the Rangers maybe?"

Zordon shook his head. "No. All of the Rangers are accounted for. They are merely tied up with their family and after-school obligations. If you are still willing, Alpha will teleport you to the alleyway so you can search for clues."

At Harry's answering nod, Zordon once more thanked him and gave Alpha the go-ahead.

"Ai yai yai! Please be careful, Harry." Alpha said in his chronically distressed sounding voice as he activated the teleporter and Harry was surrounded by a white glow before flying up and out of the command center.

-MR-

The first thing Harry did upon his arrival was cast a Notice-Me-Not charm on himself to prevent any pedestrians from interfering. The first thing he noticed was that the alley looked like someone had been trashing it rather thoroughly. There were several trash bags that had been split open as well as large cardboard boxes that were smashed. A lone trashcan lid lay rather conspicuously in the middle of the alley, bent all out of shape.

The now familiar six tone beep of his communicator brought Harry out of his musings. "Harry, have you discovered anything?" Zordon's deep voice came from his watch and Harry rolled his eyes. He must be worried if he's already calling when Harry had barely been there for ten seconds.

Harry brought the watch up near his face and pushed a small button on the side, answering the call. "Yeah, Zordon. Someone trashed this place pretty good. Smashed boxes and trash bags are split open all over the place… Hang on…" Harry's eyes caught on a bright green shoulder bag with a black strap that was partially hidden under some loose newspaper.

"What is it Harry? What do you see?" Zordon's voice grew in urgency, his worry even more apparent.

"It looks like someone's school bag…" Harry said slowly as he opened the bag, seeing a few text books and other school supplies. He pulled out a math book and opened the cover, seeing a list of previous owners written on the inside, running his finger down the list until he got to the newest. "And according to this, they belong to Tommy Oliver…"

Zordon was silent for a moment, almost making Harry think he had broken off the communication. Finally, he responded. "You should bring the bag back to the Command Center, Harry. I fear I might know what has happened, though I need to meditate on it before informing anyone."

"Keeping secrets doesn't help anyone, Zordon. Especially not in potentially tense and dangerous situations…"

"I will inform everyone of my suspicions once I am certain that I am right, Harry. I ask that you trust me for now."

"If you say so," Harry reluctantly replied as he repacked and closed the bag before picking it up. "I guess I'm ready for teleportation back whenever you guys are."

"Alright, Harry," Alpha's voice responded. "Teleporting now."

Deep in his gut, Harry knew that this had been important. He just hoped that Zordon got the chance to share his theory before the shit hit the fan.

-MR-

Don't forget to review.

Tenstar12


	8. Chapter 8

Magi Ranger

By: Tenstar12

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or Power Rangers.

 **Chapter 8, In which Green Does Not Necessarily Represent Envy**

As it turned out, Zordon did not, in fact, have the chance to share his potential discovery with anyone. He was too busy getting his butt kicked.

The first sign Harry received that something was wrong came while he was finishing up grinding the last bit (he hoped) of Terror Toad horn he would need for his new focus. It wasn't really a sign that could be missed either. It was rather difficult to mistake Zordon's near panicked shouting and the various pops and explosions coming from the main room of the Command Center as anything but trouble.

Harry burst out of his hidden room in time to see a figure in what looked like a green Ranger suit with a golden chest piece and golden armbands. The unidentified Ranger was ripping the consoles open and tearing out the internal wiring while Zordon pleaded for him to stop. 'In retrospect,' Harry thought, 'I probably should have come out with my invisibility cloak on…' This line of thought was inspired by the fact that the figure was now staring right at him.

Or at least Harry supposed he was since the individual in question had the same kind of full face helmet the other Rangers did that made it rather difficult to tell what they were looking at specifically.

"Who the bloody hell are you?" Harry demanded, pulling his magic up as he shifted away from the door to his room. He was moving to his left, where he could see Alpha standing while slumped forward, unresponsive.

"Ah…" the figure said in a somewhat deep voice with a bit of a sinister lilt to it as if he was trying as hard as he could to sound evil. "You must be the magic user that Zordon's pathetic Power Rangers recruited. Empress Rita warned me about you."

" _Empress_ Rita?" Harry questioned in an attempt to keep him talking. Zordon had gone quiet moments after Harry had stepped out but the wizard didn't have time to look. He had a feeling that taking his attention off the intruder was probably one of the worst things he could do at the moment.

"Yes, Empress Rita!" the man nearly shouted. "She is the future ruler of Earth. I am her Green Ranger and she is my Queen!"

"Mate, it sounds like you got smacked upside the head with something. There's nothing royal about that bloody bint other than being a royal pain in my backside."

"Enough of your slander of Empress Rita!" the Green Ranger shouted before leaping toward him, easily clearing the smoking console between them, and drawing back for a flying punch that would leave Harry nothing but a smear on the Command Center wall.

At least it would have if he hadn't apparated away at the last moment, reappearing with a pop in the center of the consoles where the Green Ranger had just been standing. Twisting around to face his opponent, Harry sent a full body bind at him, smiling in satisfaction as it hit him in the back and washed over his chest piece.

His satisfied smile was quickly removed from his face as the Green Ranger began laughing. "You think your pathetic spells can affect me?" He easily stood from the partial crouch he had been in after landing and slowly turned to face Harry once more. "My Empress has used her magic to protect me from anything you can do. My shield is especially resistant to your pathetic powers."

'Great,' Harry thought. 'He's resistant to my magic. Rita must have given him a super charge through the Elder Wand for him to have this much resistance without magic of his own though…'

Harry's thought process was cut off as the Green Ranger vanished in a blink of green light only to reappear right in Harry's face moments later. Before he could react, Green grabbed the front of his shirt and lifted him into the air with one arm. "From all that Goldar warned me about you, I expected more of a challenge. Are you prepared to meet your end?"

"Oh, I'm far from done, mate." Harry summoned a loose panel from the console behind the Green Ranger, sending it flying forward to smash into the back of his head, making him stumble. Harry used the Ranger's momentary lack of balance to cast a wandless banisher, breaking his hold on Harry's shirt and sending him back into the console that had just assaulted him.

Harry dropped to the ground in a crouch, idly summoning a small chunk of metal from one of the destroyed consoles as he did and tapping it with a finger, making it glow blue for a moment.

Green took no time at all to recover, quickly standing and making his way over to tower over Harry's crouched form. "Just give up, Wizard. You are nowhere near powerful enough to take me down. Empress Rita's total victory has been assured from the moment she recruited me into her army."

"If you say so…" Harry mumbled before throwing himself backward, landing on his back and tossing the fragment of metal at the Green Ranger. "Catch!"

Out of reflex the Green Ranger did just that, only to disappear as his touch activated the Portkey Harry had thrown.

Harry immediately threw his arms out, letting his magic flow from him as rapidly as it could and guiding it to form a dome over the Command Center. It was a kind of rudimentary ward he had once been shown that would, hopefully, prevent access from a specific party, in this case the Green Ranger. Mere moments after he got the ward up he felt an impact from outside. Since the ward was anchored on him, he felt the full strain of the pressure that Green was putting on his protections in his attempt to reenter the Command Center.

The strain would have brought him to his knees if he hadn't already been there.

If he had had any doubt before that the Green Ranger was empowered by the Elder Wand then it was settled in that moment. Harry very much doubted that Rita's Ranger would ever be able to use expressed magic as Harry did, but the familiar pressure of magic at the levels he was feeling, corrupted though it was by Rita's own power, confirmed that successfully using direct magic on him would be nearly impossible.

Finally, after what felt like hours but was probably closer to ten minutes, Harry felt the pressure caused by Green's attempts to reenter the Command Center stop. Harry nearly collapsed in relief, avoiding it through sheer willpower alone, before his attention was brought to the Viewing Globe which had lit up seemingly on its own.

"Well played, Wizard," Green's helmeted face appeared in the Globe as his voice echoed around the room. "You have successfully kept me out of the Command Center this time, but I shall return. And when I do, nothing will stop me from destroying the Power Rangers and all that ally themselves with them." Then the image vanished leaving the Viewing Globe blank once more.

Slowly and unsteadily, Harry stood once more and looked around the Command Center as he let his ward collapse, drawing the excess magic back into himself. He saw Alpha still standing where he had first seen him and still slumped over. Around half the consoles were trashed, their tops ripped open and the wires and circuits within torn out, though it probably would have been worse if Harry hadn't come out of his room when he had. At least none of the consoles were burning…

His thoughts were once more derailed, this time by Zordon's voice. "Harry… must… Rangers… Rita… Coin… to… Green…" Zordon's giant head in the tube was flickering in and out of view, the edges blurrier than normal even when he was visible. His voice kept cutting out, making it hard for Harry to make out more than one word out of several.

"Zordon, I can't understand you! What's going on? Who was that guy?" Harry's shouts seemed unheard on Zordon's end as he just kept talking.

"Together… defeat… strong… the… you." Zordon's face then blinked out one final time and stayed that way.

"Ah bloody hell…" Harry mumbled before glancing over the room again. "Jason is gonna flip when he sees this place and hears what happened to Zordon…" Harry sighed. "Oh well, I guess there's nothing to do but call them in…"

Reluctantly but knowing he had no real choice, Harry brought his communicator up near his face and activated it. "Guys, its Harry. We've got a bit of situation…"

-MR-

Luckily enough, the Rangers had all been together when Harry called them. The problem there was that Green had managed to destroy enough of the control consoles that teleportation was down so they couldn't get to the Command Center through their normal methods.

Harry offered to apparate to them and bring them in one at a time but Trini had immediately vetoed the idea. She still hadn't gotten over her own short trip via apparition during the Terror Toad battle and was not at all eager for a repeat performance.

In the end, the Rangers ended up coming in Billy's car, which he had named "the Rad Bug." Apparently it was a project of his that he had finished some time before and had helped the Rangers the last time they had teleportation troubles. When Harry asked how a car would be able to help them, he was told that Billy had created a mechanism that allowed the car to fly.

So it was that an hour or so after Green had been forced out of the Command Center the Rangers flew down the shaft in the roof usually used for teleportation and landed in a small silver car. It was a rather simple vehicle all said and done, mostly smooth curves and slopes along the body. The only obvious changes Billy must have made were a box on the front bumper and some kind of dome on the hood and roof, the latter of which was connected to a barrel shaped device on the back by a long tube. Almost immediately after the teens got out of the car, Harry's prediction was proven correct.

"Look at this place," Jason was the first to speak as he got out of the front passenger seat. Harry stood from behind one of the center consoles where he had been gathering the wires and other components together in the hopes that Billy would be able to fix them. Jason spotted him and immediately advanced toward him threateningly. "What did you do, Harry!"

Rolling his eyes, Harry sent a leg-locker curse at Jason, sending the teen to the ground when his legs snapped together and his knees locked. "Alright then," Harry said with a false smile on his face. "Now that Jason's paranoid ranting has been cut off, what can you guys tell me about the green Power Ranger that was in here not even an hour ago tearing up everything?"

"Green Power Ranger?" Kimberly asked as she, Billy, and Trini moved to look at some of the destroyed computers, their concern for Jason overwhelmed by their shock at the destruction before them.

Zack had moved to help prop Jason up when Harry spoke but nearly dropped him in shock after Harry's comment. "What do you mean?"

Seeing that Zack had ahold of Jason, Harry canceled his spell and turned to the others. "I mean there was a guy with a green Ranger suit that was in here tearing up the consoles. I think he did something that must have messed with the teleportation function of the communicators. Whoever it was, he also managed to fry Alpha and disconnect us from Zordon."

"Zordon's gone?!" Kimberly shouted as her attention quickly switched to the conspicuously empty tube.

"Yeah," Harry said with a sigh, rubbing the back of his neck. "He tried to say something just after I kicked Green out, but I couldn't understand it. His voice kept skipping out or something like…"

"Like a bad connection?" Billy interjected, holding a severed end of a cable that had been in front of the console closest to Zordon's tube.

"Yeah, I suppose so…" Harry answered as the other Rangers gathered around him and Billy, Jason shooting him a glare as he did so.

"That makes sense." Billy nodded, closely examining a cable in his hand before leaning over the console once more. "This cable is the primary information conduit for the trans-dimensional communications system that allowed Zordon to speak with us. Without it the signal would have lost integrity fairly quickly. That doesn't even take into account the rest of the damage done here…"

Billy trailed off and Zack shot a look to Trini who rolled her eyes. "With that cable ripped out like it is, Zordon can't talk to us."

"Ok, so can you put it back in?" Jason asked.

"Not exactly," Billy answered slowly. He was about to continue but Alpha chose that moment to start moving again.

"Power Rangers! Power Rangers! Intruder Alert! Intruder Alert!" The robot was speaking in a more mechanical voice than usual and his tone was constantly fluctuating. "Must contact Power Rangers! Must contact Power Rangers!"

"Alpha!" Billy shouted in eerie parallel to Harry's first meeting with him. The Blue Ranger quickly put the cable down and moved over to the staggering and flailing robot with the others right behind him.

"What happened to him?" Kimberly asked, looking between the apparently suffering robot, Billy, and Harry as she did.

"I don't know…" Harry trailed off. "He was already down when I found the green guy and I didn't have a chance to check on him. This is the first time he's moved since then. Besides that, my mechanical knowhow is effectively zero so I figured I should wait for you guys before trying anything."

"Can't you, like, magic everything back to one piece or something?" Zack asked him in concern.

Harry shook his head. "Not as such, no. My magic and complex technology don't mix together very well. You guys might remember Billy making my communicator and how the first one shorted out and the second one exploded? Yeah, imagine that on a larger scale if I tried to fix things in here. Not really a good idea. I'd probably finish the job Green started if I tried any direct magic on the computers."

The other Rangers paled at the thought, save Billy who was busy looking over Alpha. "Yeah," Zack finally said. "I see how that could be bad… What did happen though?"

Harry sighed. He couldn't see any other recourse than to reveal his hidden room to them. If he didn't, Jason would probably continue to assume that he had been the one to destroy the Command Center. At least until Green made an appearance in Angel Grove anyway.

Harry pointed toward the hidden doorway. "I made a secret room of sorts in the Command Center…" He could tell the moment the Rangers were finally able to see the door. Their focus on the spot that he was pointing to and the fact that he had mentioned the room allowing them to see past the Notice-Me-Not enchantment. "I was in there working on the focus components that have been collected when I heard something going on out here. I came out, saw the green guy, we fought, I magiced him out of the Command Center and threw up a temporary ward to keep him out and then called you guys when he stopped trying to get in."

"You know you might have been able to beat him if you were taking karate lessons…" Zack hedged, a hint of a smile on his face.

Harry could see that he was trying to bring a sense of levity to the otherwise tense situation, but Harry wasn't up for it. "I seriously doubt that Zack, and this is probably not the best time for that topic… again…"

Everyone was quiet for a moment as Billy turned back to Alpha. Finally, he gave a short exclamation of surprise and discovery before pulling a disk out of a slot on Alpha's back. The response was immediate.

"Oh, Power Rangers, you're here! And Harry, you're alright too! Ai yai yai yai yai! What happened to the Command Center!"

Everyone smiled once Alpha returned to a semblance of normality, but Kimberly quickly returned to the topic at hand. "Alpha do you know who did this to you?"

The robot paused for a moment before speaking again, his voice reflecting his confusion. "All my memory chips seem to have been scrambled. No recollection."

Billy nodded and waved the disk. "There must have been a virus on this disk that affected his systems."

Jason turned back to Harry, a frown of concentration on his face as concern danced in his eyes. "Harry, you said it was a green Ranger who did this, right?" At Harry's nod, he continued. "So what can you tell us about this guy then?"

Harry shrugged as he leaned against the edge of a destroyed console. "Not much I'm afraid. I'm fairly sure it is a boy under the suit based on his voice and body type. I know he seems to worship Rita and claims to be her Green Ranger, and has at least some level of martial arts training, but that's almost a given with the suit seeing as I doubt Rita would choose someone who couldn't fight to battle against you lot. His suit also gives him an unreal level of resistance to my magic. I hit him with a kind of paralysis spell and it did absolutely nothing. I'm fairly certain that Rita super charged him with magic through the Elder Wand. I used a magical transport device to get him out of the Command Center, but it didn't take him as long as I had anticipated to start trying to get back in. My guess is that it dropped him out of transit somewhere between here and the destination I set. So he's not completely immune, but I seriously doubt that most direct magic will affect him and anything that does probably won't work as well or last as long as it should."

"Great, so we have a martial artist who is magically resistant." Trini said with a sigh, her shoulders slumping slightly.

"Hey, no worries guys," Jason interjected, taking a step forward and standing up straight. "Harry just said his magic isn't completely useless against him and we've beaten powerful fighters before. We'll beat this guy too."

"Yeah, but every other time we've had Zordon to help us." Zack reminded everyone. "We don't have him this time."

Alpha had his own answer for that. "Billy and I can get started on repairing the computers right away and then I will try to re-establish contact with Zordon. With luck, I should be able to find him within a few hours of the computers getting fixed."

"And in the meantime we'll stay ready." Jason nodded. "Rita can attack at any time, especially since she's gotta know that we're crippled right now. We just need to be ready to show her that we're down, but not out."

Seeing the other teens around him taking heart from Jason's words made Harry smile inwardly. Say what you will about Jason's corny speeches, they did their job. Taking a deep breath, Harry perked up. "Right, well I'll be getting back to it then!"

"What are you going to do?" Kimberly asked. "I thought you said you couldn't use your magic to help fix things here."

"I can't," Harry said. "But I can get back to work on my wand. I should be able to finish it fairly soon if my guess is right."

Looking over at where Billy and Alpha were already hard at work on the computers, Trini spoke up. "Do you mind if we watch? There's not much we can do out here to help these two so…"

Harry looked over Jason, Zack, Kimberly, and Trini before shrugging. "I suppose so. Just be warned, It's probably gonna be rather boring for you."

Moving quickly, Harry reached the door to his room first and slipped through while the door was still swinging open, disillusioning the cot before any of the others could see it. He may have had to tell everyone about the room, but they didn't necessarily need to know he slept there too.

By the time the four Rangers entered his room, he was sitting at his desk with various transfigured glass containers with each of his selected wand components sitting against the wall at the back of the desk. Directly in front of him was his chosen piece of holly and a transfigured knife.

"This is actually kinda cool," Kimberly commented when she walked into the room, looking around the black walls and at his sparing furniture. "Kinda simple but not bad. Don't know that I should have expected much else from a boy though." She and Trini shared a smile while Harry rolled his eyes.

"Here," Harry offered after a moment, grabbing a few spare stones he had piled next to his desk and levitating them toward the four Rangers who hadn't stepped to far away from the door. A few feet from each Ranger, the stones were transfigured into simple wooden chairs that settled to the ground in front of them. "I don't usually entertain much in here so I don't have much in the way of furniture."

With a small snort of laughter, Zack grabbed his chair and dragged it over near Harry's desk before spinning it around and sitting with his arms resting on the back. "So, what are you working on now?"

As the other Rangers settled their own seats nearby, Harry picked up the piece of holly and showed it to the others. "This is the piece of wood I'm going to carve the body of my wand with. I plan on letting my magic guide me in this instance so I probably won't be much for conversation. Once I have the body carved out, I'm going to split it down the middle and hollow it out, put the core in, and then seal it back together. If all goes well then I'll have a working wand."

"And what if it doesn't go well?" Jason asked.

Harry sighed. "As I said earlier, it could do nothing, it could explode, and most anything in between. Whatever happens, I'll probably be very, very disappointed. If I had to take a guess, based on the all involved circumstances, I'd say it's most likely to just not channel any magic at all when I try to use it."

"So there's a chance that it won't even work?" Kimberly looked affronted at the mere thought.

Harry shrugged. "Yeah, I've never actually had to craft my own wand. Before I got the Elder Wand when I finished Voldemort, I had a wand that I had used since I started my schooling. That one was destroyed just before I left my original world. During the war, I had that wand through it all so even though I was taught how to make my own there was never cause to use those lessons."

The others didn't seem to know how to respond to that so Harry shrugged again and closed his eyes. "I'm going to channel some of my magic into this wood and then start carving. This particular piece is actually surprisingly accepting of my magic, so if nothing else I'll have a good body for the wand. Once the wood is magically charged, the magical energy itself will guide me as I carve. I'll be in a kind of trance so that's why I won't be much for conversation." Not hearing any complaints or comments, Harry focused his magic and let his senses wander as he picked up the knife from his desk.

-MR-

All in all, the carving process, guided by his magic, took a bit over an hour. Harry was only aware of the passage of time in the vaguest of senses. The Rangers who had joined him in his room had begun talking after a short while and the background noise was a somewhat pleasant diversion for the part of Harry's mind that wasn't taken up by his task.

When he finally replaced the knife on his desk, the clack of metal on wood attracting the Rangers' attention, he was left holding a wooden rod nearly 12 inches long that was glowing faintly in his hand. The entire thing was rather thicker than any wand he had used in the past. It lacked the defined handle and gentle slope to a point of most Ollivander wands. Instead, it was more like a baton that maintained its 1 inch diameter for the majority of its length before abruptly angling to a point about an inch from the end.

"That's gonna be your wand?" Zack asked, incredulity showing in his voice.

Kimberly wasn't impressed either. "Yeah, it kinda looks more like a glow stick with a point right now…"

Harry gave a rueful smile. "I'll admit it's not exactly what I was thinking when I envisioned it either. Most wands I saw in my old world were much more… streamlined… And not just because they were professionally made. The general shape of this thing is off from what I'm used to. But if everything goes right it should still work all the same. And honestly, the extra size would probably work better for the number of core ingredients I have to put in it."

"So you said you have to split it in half now, right?" Trini asked. "How do you plan to do that?"

Harry smiled and sent a pulse of his magic into the wood again. With a soft crack the wood split smoothly in half along the grain. "Like this." Harry smirked as the Rangers stared, confusion written in their eyes.

"How…" Kimberly started.

"Magic." Harry cut her off with a smile before chuckling at the glare she shot him before he started hollowing out a groove on each half of the wand.

-MR-

Once Harry finished preparing one half of the wand, he took a short break to finish work on one of his other components, in this case the Zapple Apple. With a few simple transfigurations, he had a magical fire in a contained and protected space that was heating the apple over another container that would collect the molten metal and hold it in stasis so that it wouldn't fully solidify before he was ready. Luckily enough, it turned out that whatever kind of metal the apple was made of melted rather easily as the entire thing was liquid by the time he finished preparing the other half of the wand's body. All in all, the entire process only took thirty minutes.

Also during that time, Billy dropped in for a moment, both to see what Harry was working on and to report that he and Alpha had managed to at least get the teleporters partially running. They would only work when they were morphed, something about the extra energy provided by their coins helping the process along, but it was better than nothing. He did say that the console connecting to Zordon's communication device was much more damaged than they had originally thought, which is why they put it off to work on the teleporters first. After all, if Rita's forces attacked and they couldn't get there to stop them then they'd be out of luck. It wasn't like the Power Rangers could fly the Rad Bug into battle after all.

"You know," Harry said once he confirmed all his components were ready. "If I had things my way, I wouldn't be doing this all at once."

"What do you mean, Harry?" Trini asked while the others looked on curiously.

"I mean that I wouldn't be trying to do this all in one go. Carve the wand body one day and finish the final ingredient prep another. Get the solid core together and assemble the whole thing on a third and fourth day. Spread things out so I'd have less of a chance of messing things up due to stress. Freaking Green Ranger…"

Just then, the alarm klaxons in the Command Center went off.

"Ah bugger…" Harry slammed his head into the desk in front of him. "Sorry all, I think I may have jinxed us…"

"Rangers! Rangers!" Alpha waddled up to the still open door of Harry's room with Billy close behind him. "Goldar and the Putty Patrol are gathering to attack Angel Grove!"

Jason and the other Rangers stood from their transfigured chairs which Harry then vanished to get them out of the way. "Then we better head them off guys." The Red Ranger said with determination in his voice.

"Right!" the other four Rangers called before following him into the main room of the Command Center.

"Harry," Jason stopped for a moment, giving the wizard a firm look. "If this Green Ranger guy shows up we're probably gonna need your help if he's as strong as you said he is. Get your wand done as soon as you can, alright?"

Harry just nodded, refraining from rolling his eyes. "Shouldn't be too terribly long at this point, Jason. I'll be along as soon as I can." As if he would have taken his time during a crisis situation.

With a nod to Harry, Jason moved to stand with the rest of the Rangers. "Alright guys, It's Morphin' Time!"

"MASTODON!" "PTERODACTYL!" "TRICERATOPS!" "SABER-TOOTH TIGER!" "TYRANNOSAURUS!"

The five briefly appeared in their spandex-like suits before being engulfed in light of their own colors that then flew through the air as Alpha teleported them to the location of Rita's forces. "Ai yai yai…" Alpha murmured as he shuffled back to one of the consoles and resumed repair work.

Deciding to take the robot's lead, Harry got back to work on his wand, carefully pouring the molten metal of the Zapple Apple into the hollow on each half of the wand and then tilting each piece to get an even coating as it cooled. He had a brief worry when he first started pouring that the liquid metal would set the wooden wand shell alight, but was more than a bit relieved when that didn't happen.

While the metal cooled, Harry collected the strands from the Pinoctopus Vine and the Singing Squash and entwined them with some of the Genie's webbing, securing the bundle at several places with some strands of his own hair. It was a rather tedious process since he couldn't use magic to tie his hairs in a loop around the bundle and his hair just wasn't quite long enough to make it an easy job otherwise.

Finally, after several minutes of struggle, Harry had the solid core bundle prepared and gathered his other ingredients. Mixing together the sample of his blood, the ground Terror Toad horn, and the dust from Madame Woe's crystal focus, Harry was left with a thick brown paste that he spread over the now solid, if still a bit warm, metal that sat in the recesses of the wand shells.

Harry was just reaching for the bundle of strands once more when the alarm in the Command Center started going off again.

"Ai yai yai yai yai! Harry! Come quick!"

Harry leapt up, fearing another intruder, and charged out into the main room with his hands glowing with magic. "Alpha, what is it?!" His head darted left and right, searching for anyone that didn't belong, but found nobody there but himself and Alpha. The robot was dancing frantically from one foot to the other as he stared at the once again active Viewing Globe.

"Oh Harry, it's horrible! The Green Ranger showed up and he's thrown the other Rangers out of the Megazord!"

"Say what now?" Harry demanded as he let his magic recede again and jogged over to stand behind Alpha, watching the rangers fight the same Green clad figure he had had a short encounter with earlier that day. "Yeah, that's the guy alright. Is the Megazord alright?"

Alpha nodded his saucer-shaped head. "Yes, I managed to teleport the Zords back to storage before the Green Ranger could take possession of it after the Rangers were ejected. But now they are all fighting on the ground and it looks like the Rangers are losing! What are we going to do?"

Indeed it did look bad. Harry watched as the Green Ranger practically danced amongst the Rangers, performing flips and kicks almost as if he was playing with them. As he watched, the evil Ranger locked his ankles around Trini's neck and hooked his arm around Billy's, leaving himself held horizontally between them. Before either could react, the Green Ranger twisted his body around, using Billy as a base and sending Trini flipping through the air as he planted his feet on the ground before throwing Billy as well.

"Merlin…" Harry breathed as he watched the Rangers getting beaten. "He's pulverizing them out there…"

Harry took a deep breath before his resolve hardened. He would need to speed things up now. He had hoped to have a bit of time to test his new wand after it was finished before jumping into battle, but it looked like the Green Ranger had once again taken that decision out of his hands.

With a sense of determination he hadn't felt since the last days of the war against Voldemort, Harry marched back into his room and put the core bundle in place before resting the other half of the wand over it. Gingerly, Harry picked up the fully assembled wand, feeling lucky that the paste acted like a weak adhesive. It would help in holding it together until he could channel his magic into the new focus and, hopefully, fuse it back into one piece.

His brow furrowing in concentration, Harry grasped the focus with both hands and began calling up his magic.

The first thing he noticed was the heat as the wooden shaft started warming in his hands while his magic churned within it. Next, just as the heat started to reach uncomfortable levels, the wand started to vibrate. As the next few seconds passed, Harry found he was unable to unclench his hands from the wand and felt his skin begin to burn as the vibrations from the wand became strong enough to translate to his hands. All the while, and completely unbeknownst to Harry, a fierce wind had whipped up around him, knocking the containers holding the last of his wand components off his desk and generally upsetting things around him.

Alpha was first alerted to the phenomenon when a random bolt of electricity arced out of Harry's doorway and hit one of the pylons that were placed around the room. "What in the world…?" Alpha began shuffling toward the door when another bolt arced out, nearly missing him and forcing him to take cover behind one of the consoles. "Harry! Harry, what's going on?"

As the wand grew hotter and hotter, Harry felt like his hands were on fire where they were touching it. At this point the wand was pulling his magic all on its own despite a few attempts to stop the flow. Finally, with one last burst of magic, Harry felt the wand seal itself with a sucking sound before his hands unclenched, dropping the wand to the floor.

Harry stumbled back a few steps and dropped to a sitting position on the ground, landing with a grunt. Alpha waited a few more moments before making his way into the room. "Harry? Are you alright?"

Harry blinked as he looked up at the robot's visor, the flashing lights confusing him for a second before he shook his head. "Yeah, Alpha. I'm fine." Harry said as he took a moment to examine his hands, rather surprised to find them to be whole and unburned. He then looked back toward his desk and spotted his attempted focus lying on the ground a few feet away. Without another word, Harry summoned it to his hand.

The effect was immediate.

The pointed tip of the baton-like wand let out a shower of bright red sparks as a surge of warmth shot up Harry's arms. He smiled. His wand was ready.

-MR-

Thanks for reading and don't forget to review!

Tenstar12


	9. Chapter 9

Magi Ranger

By: Tenstar12

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or Power Rangers.

 **Chapter 9, In Which Harry Shows What He's Made Of and Mysteries Abound**

The mountains near Angel Grove were rather isolated all things considered. While not quite as mountainous as one would imagine, being more long sloping rocky hills and valleys with a few moderately high peaks here and there, it was largely inaccessible to all but the most devoted hikers or rock climbers. This was rather good as it was where Zordon had chosen to hide the Command Center. It also provided a decent staging area or battleground where Rita's various monsters could fight with the Power Rangers and their Zords without either side having to worry about buildings and the like getting in the way.

It was in one of these valleys that Rita had chosen for her trap.

The putties were sent in with Goldar who was immediately grown to giant size before he hid himself as best he could. When the Rangers arrived, already in morph, they began laying into the putties with ease. They clay soldiers were not much of a challenge to those empowered by the Morphing Grid, but they were decent shock troops and good for grunt work so they were used frequently.

Once the putties had been defeated, Goldar revealed himself and the Rangers called upon the Megazord to do battle against their already giant-sized foe. After a few short exchanges, Goldar vanished and Rita's trap was sprung.

The Green Ranger ambushed the Power Rangers. Using his Power Coin, he was able to gain access to their Megazord and not only kick them out of it, but deal a decent amount of damage before being forced to bail out himself. Once back on the ground, Green showed off his superior combat prowess, amplified by Rita's magic, to almost nonchalantly defeat each of the Rangers one by one.

Billy, Trini, Zack, and Kimberly were practically blown aside for all the difficulty that Green had when fighting them. It wasn't until Jason stepped up and challenged him to one on one combat in order for the others to have a chance to recover that there was any credible resistance.

The Red and Green Rangers fought fiercely, exchanging blows back and forth as the advantage in the battle changed sides frequently. After a few minutes of ducking under kicks, blocking or diverting punches, and occasional grapples, the other Rangers had mostly recovered, but were afraid to try and attack the somewhat distracted Green for fear of hitting Jason.

"Man, look at those two go!" Zack commented.

"Yeah, I've never seen Jason fight so hard against anyone." Billy nodded.

"Well," Trini started slowly, somewhat lost in though. "Harry told us that this guy is the one who trashed the Command Center, right?"

"That's right!" Kimberly responded, her eyes widening under her helmet. "So that means this guy is the one who got rid of Zordon!"

Trini nodded. "Exactly. I know that I'd fight harder knowing what he did to Zordon and Alpha. That's probably what's driving Jason right now."

Their conversation was interrupted as Green broke through Jason's guard and landed a fierce series of blows to his torso. Green followed it up with a kick that launched him through the air, hitting the ground and rolling to a stop a few feet from the rest of his team.

"And now, you're finished!" Green shouted before he brought his hands together by his shoulder in a cupping motion. The visor on his helmet flashed with a fierce, electric green light as a similar light appeared to gather in his cupped hands. With a flourish, Green brought his hands together in front of his chest, forming a glowing orb of energy with arcs of green electricity around it. Then, with a final cry of exertion, the evil Ranger thrust his hands forward, sending the pulsing projectile toward the Ranger team.

The resulting explosion was massive and damaging by all accounts, with arcs of fire shooting in all directions from the point of impact. Green began letting out a dark laugh at his apparent victory, but it trailed off when he didn't hear the expected cries of anguish or pain.

Slowly, the smoke cleared to show the Power Rangers cautiously standing from the cringed stances they had taken in preparation for the attack. Then, as the air cleared further, everyone's attention was caught by a plain, silver colored shield, a few feet in width across the top and with the sides sloping to a point three feet down. The object appeared metal as it floated seemingly without support just in front of Jason, having apparently blocked Green's magical attack.

"Sorry about that," a voice rang out across the otherwise unoccupied valley they had been fighting in. The collective Rangers, both good and evil, whipped their heads toward the noise, catching sight of Harry as he nonchalantly walked towards them. "I can usually make them more interesting to look at. The thing is though, embossing an emblem or what have you on the surface requires more concentration and I didn't have time to do much more than cast."

Harry stopped a short distance in front of Jason as his conjured shield floated around him before settling a few feet away from his left side. He let his eyes scan the Rangers before turning toward their opponent as he let a smirk stretch across his face. "Hey there green bean, ready for round two?"

Green let out another laugh. "You?" he taunted. "I already outmatched you in the Command Center, so what makes you think you can make any kind of a difference now?"

Harry held up us left hand, three fingers extended even as the silver shield floated upwards, following his arm's movement. "Three things, mate. First, I would hardly call our brief interaction in the Command Center a case of you outmatching me. If I'm not mistaken, you were the one who got kicked out and were unable to reenter." He lowered one of his fingers and continued. "Second, my fancy shield here did just stop your attack. And based on the amount of time and overelaborate gestures you put into it, it was supposed to be rather powerful." He lowered another finger. "And third, I have this now."

Without giving Green a change to comment, Harry whipped his right arm up, his new wand in hand, and sent a bright red bolt of magic at him. With an almost negligent move, Green stepped to one side, allowing the bolt to pass by him and explode on the valley wall some distance back. "You honestly think that a stick is going to help you beat me?"

Harry shook his head slowly, almost mockingly. "Not a stick, a wand. A focus for my magical power. You'll find I'm a bit more of a challenge when I'm not caught off guard and limited in spectrum."

"Well," Green took a fighting stance, his helmet faced firmly toward Harry. "We'll just have to see about that then, won't we?" Green shifted stance suddenly, allowing him to leap toward Harry with his arm drawn back for a punch, similar to his actions in the Command Center. This time though, especially with the greater distance between them, Harry had more time to react.

With an almost negligent wave of his wand, Harry sent out a banishing spell that caught Green in midair and immediately changed his trajectory. The evil Ranger went from an all-out aerial charge to a randomly flipping and flailing involuntary retreat, ultimately landing roughly several feet further back from where he had started.

Then, with his brow furrowed in concentration, Harry began advancing, his wand waving furiously as he did and spouting a veritable torrent of colored lights onto Green's position. Luckily for Green, he was able to flip to his feet quickly enough to avoid the first of the rapid-fire magical attacks, but his luck wouldn't last forever.

The first spell that hit was a leg-locker curse which was almost immediately dispelled by the Green Ranger's inherent magical protections from Rita, but the stumble that it caused allowed for far more spells to hit. Each spell that did so caused effects that lasted longer as the protections struggled to keep up under the onslaught. Harry had been using Spell Chaining, a wandwork technique where the caster used spells with wand movements that easily flowed from one to another, thus increasing casting speed, to cast spells that mostly hindered an opponent's movement. Now that Green was being affected, even only slightly, he knew that he could amp things up. It was a part of what he had been taught. If you're facing an opponent with superior maneuverability, then limit that before you waste magic trying to take them out.

His face grim, Harry began casting more damaging spells: cutters, blasting curses, piercing hexes, and the like. These spells were, as a general rule, slower to cast due to the higher magic requirements, but these same requirements made them much more powerful and difficult to block. A faster opponent could dodge them, but one that was hindered, as the Green Ranger was now, had no other recourse than to take them on the chin.

And so he did. The first cutting curse struck diagonally across the Ranger's golden chest piece, resulting in a fierce line of sparks that staggered him further. The follow-up piercing hex landed on his right shoulder and sent him spinning through the air with yet more sparks before he hit the ground hard. His new position caused the next few spells to fly over his prone form but Harry quickly adjusted his aim as he walked ever closer. He resolutely peppered the downed Ranger with spells, resulting in more sparks and several blackened marks on his suit.

He rounded off a final chain before lowering his wand slightly. "Have you had enough?" Harry panted lightly. Having a wand certainly helped his casting, but it was still slightly exhausting making all the necessary wand movements to make up for the silent casting. Especially as he was out of practice since the end of his war.

Harry caught sight of a flash of green light coming from the downed Ranger's visor. It was his only warning before the figure rolled over suddenly with another ball of green energy in his hands like the one Harry had initially blocked on his arrival. "Hardly!" Green shouted before thrusting his hands toward Harry, launching the green ball of destruction toward his foe.

Harry however merely brought his left arm up, the shield still floating by his side moving with it to intercept the ball at an angle and deflecting it into the cliff face. When the explosion had died down Harry nodded at the stiff form of the Green Ranger still lying on the ground, stunned into immobility. "Very well." Harry nodded before raising his wand again. " _Bombarda Maxima_!

The supercharged Exploding Charm hit the downed Green Ranger and obscured him in a massive cloud of dust kicked up by the spell accompanied by a shower of sparks that showed his attack made contact. A flicker of magic made his eyes narrow before the Power Rangers ran up beside him apparently having finally overcome their shock at his arrival. Harry didn't notice them initially, he was too busy staring at his wand in confusion.

"Harry!" Trini spoke first, having run up next to him and placed a hand on his right shoulder as they watched the obscuring cloud of debris before them. "Are you alright? Did you get him?"

Harry looked up from his wand and smiled at the Yellow Ranger's concern. "Yeah, Trini. I'm alright, he never laid a hand on me."

"And I think the results speak for themselves…" Zack cut in before Harry could continue, gesturing to where Green had been. By this time the dust had settled enough to make out a crater at least six feet wide and a few feet deep. "You blew him away!"

"Was that really necessary though?" Jason asked, displeasure obvious in his voice. Harry turned to see that he, Billy, and Kimberly were standing a bit further back from the blast site. "Did you have to blow him up like that? I mean, it's not really what we do…"

Harry rolled his eyes as he dispelled his shield. "First off Jason, that's stupid. It is exactly what you guys do. In fact, either personally or through the Viewing Globe, I've witnessed you guys blow up at least five different monsters since I got here."

"Yeah but those were monsters!" Jason shouted, cutting him off. "This guy was a Ranger. He could have been one of us."

Harry's face softened slightly. "Look Jason, I appreciate what you're getting at here, but don't take it too far. It's entirely possible you could end up dooming everyone if you don't take a hard stand against the enemy. My side learned that the hard way in my war and I really don't want to have to face the authority following the exact same line of thought here. If someone is standing against you and threatens you and all that you care for, you take them down and you take them down hard. And as a matter of fact, I did give him a chance to surrender; he just didn't take it. Anyway, I didn't blow him up."

"Uh, Harry…" Kimberly said uneasily, gesturing back and forth between Harry and the still smoking crater behind him.

Billy nodded. "Yes, our own observations indicate otherwise."

Harry's brow furrowed. "Yes, I tried to blow him up, I won't deny that, but I felt a spell being cast just after mine hit. I got him good, but I'd bet my broomstick that Rita teleported him out before he took too much damage from the blast. And I almost had him too…"

Silence reigned for a moment as a breeze cut through the valley.

Then. "You'd bet your broomstick...?" Zack asked incredulously, fighting down laughter as he spoke.

Harry, distracted by his musings, shrugged. "Well I don't actually have it with me. It was probably confiscated by the Ministry when they took me into custody actually… But it's just a saying."

"Wait-wait-wait, you mean to tell me you actually kept a personal broomstick? Why?"

Harry turned toward him with a confused look. "For flying. I mean, we have spells for cleaning and such, so why else would I have one?"

"You flew on a broomstick? Isn't that a thing for witches?" Kimberly interjected, humor in her voice.

"Well sure, some did, but there were just as many wizards too," Harry nodded, oblivious to the helmeted glances the other Rangers exchanged. "I actually rather enjoyed flying. It was one of my favorite things to do back in school."

In an attempt to save Harry from any more potential embarrassment, whether the wizard realized it or not, Trini redirected everyone's attention. "Guys, we should be getting back to the Command Center. Alpha could probably use some help."

Shaking his head slightly, Jason voiced his agreement. "Good point, Trini. Let's get out of here guys." He raised his right wrist near his helmet and spoke into the communicator underneath. "Alpha, can you beam us back? We're all finished up here."

"Alright Rangers, teleporting now."

Moments later, the six vanished in five beams of colored light and a single pop of apparition.

-MR-

Once back in the Command Center, the Rangers, and Harry, watched their most recent battle on the viewing globe. After Alpha assured them that the Zords were all fine, Jason was most interested in observing the Green Ranger as he battled each of them. Examining his fighting style, he had claimed.

After the third time Jason watched the same piece of footage, Harry was more than happy to leave them to it.

He made his way over to his room and sighed at the damage done by the magical storm caused when his wand was completed. While his desk, chair, and trunk were only damaged on the surface, the entirety of the rest of his belongings, mostly consisting of his remaining wand components in all honesty, had been tossed around wildly.

"Woah," Kimberly's voice from the doorway made him jump slightly before he spun to face her. "Sorry, Harry. What happened here?"

Her voice attracted the attention of the other Rangers and they gathered at the doorway as Harry explained. "When I finished my wand I had to charge it magically to attune it properly and reseal the shell halves. There was a rather… extreme effect when I did so."

From the main room of the Command Center, Alpha let out a noise that sounded suspiciously similar to a snort. "Extreme is right. Ai yai yai…"

Harry merely rolled his eyes. "Yes, well anyway, the damage in here was caused by this effect, a sort of magical storm centered on the wand and myself."

"Were you expecting this phenomenon?" Billy asked, one eyebrow quirking up.

"I knew it was a possibility, but I didn't think it would be this bad." Harry pulled out his wand and examined it closely. "I knew that using so many core components could cause trouble, but…" Harry's eyes narrowed for a moment as looked over the wand, running his hands over the surface slowly.

"What are you doing now?" Kimberly asked.

Harry seemed to ignore her for several seconds, carefully checking each inch of the wand before he answered. "I had a thought. During the battle against Green, such as it was, the wand seemed a bit… off to me. That could just be attributed to it being new, but the magic didn't quite flow the same between one spell and the next. I'm just afraid…"

When he didn't finish his thought after several more moments, Jason spoke up. "Afraid of what?"

Harry didn't answer him directly. " _Lumos_ ," He intoned instead, watching with narrowed eyes as the tip of the wand lit up. After several seconds holding the spell, he spoke again. " _Nox_ ," the light went out.

He repeated this several more times, each time the light level was different than the first, sometimes brighter, and sometimes dimmer. At one point the light made them all look away for a moment due to its intensity and the next casting was only the barest mote of light dancing on the tip of the point. Finally, after he cancelled the light one last time, Harry slumped and let out a sigh. "Bollocks…"

The Rangers just stared at him in silence before Zack caved. "What is it?"

Harry's head snapped up, almost as if he was surprised they were still there, eagerly watching him. In truth, Harry had lost himself in his examination, hoping and praying that his suspicions wouldn't be proven true. After looking each of them in the eyes, Harry sighed. "The wand is unstable. You all know I had to use multiple different core components to balance the magical energies and to get a decent level of magical conductivity in the wand. It wouldn't work as a magical focus otherwise. I told you that my biggest concern was that the wand wouldn't work right in the first place, but in all honesty that was the most likely problem for me to have. What happened here is that the core components aren't mingling well so the magic doesn't come out properly. It's one of the more unusual problems for a wand to have but it is the main reason more wands in my old world weren't made with multiple cores."

"So, what, it works, but not like it should?" Kimberly asked, her face screwed up in confusion.

"Of course it works!" Zack interjected, his earlier exuberance showing again. "You saw what he did to the Green Ranger earlier. Even if he got away in the end, the thing still works well enough to get the job done. Right?"

"Yes and no." Harry sighed again before sitting in his battered chair and placing his wand on the desk, eyeing it with an unreadable look on his face. "It'll still work properly within reason, but there are more than a few potential issues with using an unstable wand. It could sputter out at the wrong time, like when the light on the tip was barely there. It could overpower the heck out of the spell, like when the light nearly blinded us and, if I'm honest, when I used the exploding charm on Green earlier."

"So you didn't mean to nearly blow him up?" Jason interrupted, disbelief on his face.

Harry gave Jason a blank look. "No, Jason, as I said earlier I most definitely meant to blow him up, I just wasn't expecting to nearly blow him up so well."

Jason's scowl deepened slightly but he didn't say anything else, allowing Harry to continue. "There have been any number of results from an unstable wand in my world, but I had hoped that using my blood in the core would not only help attune it to me, but to also prevent most of these issues."

"I guess that didn't work out then?" Kimberly suggested.

"Not really, no…" Harry shook his head, once more eyeing the wand.

"Is there any way you can fix it?" Trini asked.

Harry shook his head again. "No, once a wand is sealed up, any significant damage to it can cause any and all spells to backfire. I had a… friend back in school, Ron Weasley. His wand broke in our second year and he figured he'd be alright if he just taped it back together. The core, a unicorn tail hair, was still intact, but he had issues with that wand all year long. Sometimes the spells would fizzle out entirely, though that could have just been Ron now that I think about it… But in one case, the spell he cast actually came out of the handle end instead of the point. It hit him in the stomach and he spent the next few hours belching up slugs every few seconds. Not fun."

The Rangers all looked a bit green at the thought save Trini, who was giggling slightly. "He tried to tape it back together?"

Harry rolled his eyes, chuckling slightly. "In his defense, we were only twelve and he was never the smartest player on the pitch.

-MR-

The rest of the afternoon and evening was spent with Alpha, Harry, and the Rangers doing what they could to clean up the Command Center. For Alpha, Billy, and, to a lesser extent, Trini, that meant repairing and replacing damaged computer components. For Zack, Kimberly, and Jason, it meant gathering rubble and the components discarded by the repair team and disposing of them. For Harry, it meant either helping the disposal team or using his magic to repair solid panels or any parts of the computers that weren't directly involved in some kind of electronic process as his magic would make them all but useless for that purpose.

The entire time Harry was very much aware of Jason's frustration that only grew as they catalogued the total damage done. Billy and Alpha both said that they were lucky Harry had shown up when he did or else things would have been immeasurably worse. As it was, they were lucky that the delicate communications systems hadn't been disabled during Green's rampage.

But the Red Ranger seemed especially annoyed with the Green. On top of all the damage in the Command Center, he had failed to defeat him in one-on-one battle. One could even argue that he had been made a fool of when Green kicked them out of the Megazord. Harry didn't feel these thoughts would help settle the teen's mind though. He was angry and, for quite possibly the first time, he and the other Rangers had been handed a rather solid defeat. If it wasn't for Harry, it would have been worse, but Jason was still blaming himself enough to make up for that.

Aside from general angst and sadness from all concerned, there was little real difficulty in their activities apart from Alpha's systems, still damaged by the computer virus Green had given him, shutting down again. Though even that issue was remedied by Billy after twenty or so minutes.

By the time the Rangers climbed back into the Rad Bug to fly home, the circle of consoles looked much better than before, even if they still weren't fully repaired. Alpha and Billy had managed to get one of the secondary generators running again so they weren't operating on fumes of power anymore, a condition Harry hadn't even been aware of himself, and the robot was taking the time while his main help was gone to start a search for Zordon. It was a process that would probably take a lot of time. Time the Rangers and Harry felt they didn't really have to spare.

-MR-

The next morning, Tuesday, the Rangers flew in with the Rad Bug one short. Kimberly had decided to go to school that day even though the others were taking advantage of the computers working well enough to cover their absence the same way Zordon usually did.

Harry was rather confused at the concept of a computer being able to direct and control magical energies to mask the fact that the four Rangers weren't at school, but he didn't waste too much time on it.

It was back to the same grind as the day before, only this time there was less for Harry, Zack, and Jason to do seeing as they had moved all the obvious junk the day before. Shortly after Noon, Jason decided to head back to Angel Grove. It was a bit early to go and pick up Kimberly, but he told them all he had a few things to take care of. Zack went along with him, citing a similar reason, which left just Trini and Billy with Harry and Alpha.

With little else to do and very little he could help the others with, Harry ended up doing what he could to repair the damage done in his room. As it turned out though, the damage caused by the magical storm from his wand was somehow resistant to being magically repaired. He could do it, but it took quite a bit of time and effort just to restore a relatively small area. Not having anything better to do and grumbling about magical damage and magical backlash, Harry spent the next few hours restoring his furniture.

-MR-

It was around four in the afternoon when the Rad Bug once more arrived in the Command Center, once again carrying one less than it should have been.

"Where's Jason?" Trini was quick to ask, attracting Harry's attention and bringing him out of his room.

"No clue," Zack answered as he and Kimberly approached the others. "After we finished working out earlier he told me he had a few things to take care of by himself and never showed up again."

Kimberly nodded. "Yeah, we waited for him as long as we could, but we figured you guys needed help here more."

Harry's eyes narrowed as a short shiver went up his spine. Billy and Trini shared a weary look before the Yellow Ranger spoke. "Well, I suppose he will call us on the communicator if he needs us."

"Yeah, that's what we figured," Zack said with a smile. "Plus, if he really gets in trouble he just needs to morph and we can teleport him outta there if he can't deal with the problem himself."

That seemed to settle the other Rangers, but Harry had a feeling that there was more happening than they thought. He just hoped they figured out what before it was too late.

-MR-

Don't forget to read and review!

Tenstar12


	10. Chapter 10

Magi Ranger

By: Tenstar12

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or Power Rangers.

 **Chapter 10, In Which Boredom Reigns, A Mystery is Solved, and Green Makes Another Move**

Zack was pacing, occasionally throwing a few punches at the air in front of him and grumbling as he did so.

Billy and Alpha were working on repairing the computers.

Kimberly and Trini were chatting quietly, occasionally helping out the two mechanically inclined individuals with simple tasks when asked.

Harry was concerned.

It had been half an hour since Zack and Kimberly had returned to the Command Center sans Jason, and Harry was concerned at the _lack_ of concern the others were showing. They all seemed rather confident in Jason's ability to take care of himself, but Harry's instincts were telling him something was really wrong. It might have been paranoia, but with the situation with the Green Ranger as it was he felt a bit of paranoia was acceptable. The guy had broken into the Command Center already, who's to say he wouldn't be able to do something to one of the Rangers without being caught? Not to mention that he had already beaten Jason in their short fight the day before.

His musings were disturbed by Zack letting out a shout of frustration as he spun to face the others. "I can't take this anymore!"

"Woah…" Kimberly trailed off, giving Zack a wide eyed look before exchanging a glance with Trini.

"I mean, who the hell is this guy?" Zack started ranting, pacing again as he ran his hands over his close cropped hair. "He broke into the Command Center, but the only reason he could do that is because he has a Power Coin. Zordon never mentioned anything about a sixth Power Coin, much less that Rita had it. He fights like an expert martial artist. Heck, we could barely touch him when we fought yesterday! I just can't get it outta my head!"

"Yeah, Jason seemed aggravated by him too," Trini said slowly before gasping as a thought struck her. "Do you think he might have gone looking for him alone?"

Harry crossed his arms, leaning back against the side of one of the computers. "I doubt that," He said slowly, trying to think of a way to make his point. "Jason may be many things, but he's not stupid. Every fight I've seen him in since I got here he's been a team player, one hundred percent. It's rather out of character for him to have gone off alone… intentionally…"

Zack's pacing abruptly stopped once again and he spun to face Harry. "You think maybe Green got ahold of him? Do you think he might be in trouble?"

Harry shrugged. "I think… that this whole thing feels suspicious to me, knowing what I do of Jason's character."

The Rangers present exchanged several looks before Zack raised his communicator to his mouth. "Jason… Jason, its Zack, come in…" The communicator let off a short tone that had a decidedly negative sound to it, making Zack frown further. "Jason! Come on man, answer!"

Seeing Zack's lack of success, Billy walked quickly toward one of the intact consoles. "I'll see if I can get a lock on Jason's communicator…"

While Zack continued in his frantic attempts to call him and Billy started pressing buttons in a seemingly random order, the others waited silently. Once again, the Black Ranger was the first to break. "Dammit!" He cursed, throwing his hands up in the air. "Why won't he answer?"

Harry's brow furrowed as he resisted the urge to respond with a sarcastic comment. He was saved by Billy's answer. "I can't locate him anywhere in or around Angel Grove. And if he had teleported himself somewhere there would be a report in the computer logs, but there's nothing."

"Guys…" Kimberly said slowly. "I don't like this. What if something really did happen to him?"

The distressed Rangers started looking around nervously, searching to see if any of them had any idea. Harry exchanged a glance with Alpha, as well as he could considering the robot's lack of eyes, before sighing and standing up again. "For now, we really can't do much." He said, trying to project confidence in his voice. "I would suggest that we each try to stay occupied for now. Try to keep your mind off of things as best you can."

Zack rolled his eyes. "And how are we supposed to do that? There's not really a surplus of things to do around here if you can't fix a computer."

Harry gave the teen a wry look before pulling out his wand and concentrating. Giving his focus a wave, Harry conjured a large punching bag much like the ones Ernie had in the Youth Center. "You could try letting out some of your aggression on this if you'd like. I noticed that you and Jason do that most times you're at the Youth Center." With another wave, he sent the bag drifting off to one of the walls outside the ring of consoles and left it floating there a few feet off the ground. Then, struck by another thought, Harry waved his wand again and an image of the Green Ranger appeared on the bag.

With a short, perhaps somewhat bitter laugh, Zack nodded his thanks and made his way over to the punching bag. As the wizard watched, Zack hopped in place lightly, his body moving in a seemingly random, almost dancelike pattern before striking out unexpectedly with both fists and feet. The Command Center echoed with random bursts of dull _thwumps_ as he let out his anger. Turning to the others, he noticed Billy had resumed his work with Alpha, a sort of urgency and worry now infusing his actions, while the girls had returned to their previous whispered conversation.

Deciding that he couldn't really add too much more to help them, Harry made his way back to his room, intent on finishing up with his cleaning. The damage to his furniture was nearly done, only his desk still had any marks that would prevent proper use. The deep gouges on the surface were proving to be just as resistant to his repair efforts as the others had, but he figured that ten minutes or so of concentration would finally restore the surface to its original condition.

As he focused on fighting the residual magics in the final damaged section of the transfigured piece of woodwork, a burned out gouge that had probably been hit by one of the magical bolts of electricity, Harry was caught off guard by a voice behind him. "Hey," Kimberly mumbled, almost bashfully, rather odd for the usually outgoing girl. "Thanks for that out there. Keeping us focused like that. Jason has sort of been the leader of our group since we first met as kids. He's always been a natural leader and I guess we're just kinda lost without him around."

Harry turned to face the Pink Ranger with a small smile. "It's no problem, Kimberly. I was happy to be able to help." When Kimberly didn't seem as if she was going to respond, Harry turned back to his desk, working his magic into and around the loose energies that had been left in the desk, trying to remove it so he could transfigure the section back to its proper shape.

"So everything looks better in here than it did before."

Harry fought back a sigh at Kimberly's awkward comment. "I've been working fairly hard on restoring it. I'm actually almost done with the damage. Then I'll need to take care of the debris from the wand components and the like." He waved absently toward the multitude of pieces of glass, wood, stone, and plant matter that he had moved to various spots along the walls. As it turned out, everything that broke was equally magically resistant so he couldn't just vanish the lot of it. It would have to be manually collected and disposed of if he wanted his room truly clean again.

"Um… I can work on that if you'd like." Kimberly offered with a smile. "There's not much for me to do right now. Trini's always been the only one of our group who could keep up with Billy even a little and Alpha has her helping with checking some of the repaired systems right now so…"

Harry gave her another small smile. "Sure Kimberly. I would appreciate the help." Focusing for a moment, Harry conjured a broom and dustpan along with a simple metal trash can. Nodding decisively, Kimberly took the cleaning implements and started sweeping.

Mere minutes later, Harry finished restoring his desk and spent a bit of time just observing the usually perky girl. Kimberly was diligently sweeping, almost too diligently truth be told. As if she was trying to avoid thinking about something that weighed heavily on her. Come to think of it, she had been somewhat down ever since she arrived at the Command Center…

After spending a moment trying to decide how to approach the topic, Harry decided to simply charge ahead like the Gryffindor he was. "Kimberly, I hope you don't mind me saying so, but you seem rather… off today. Certainly more down than the others are with our current Jason situation. Is there anything else bugging you?"

The girl paused in her cleaning for a moment before shrugging, not meeting his eyes. "Yeah, I'm doing aright I guess. I just had a bit of a hard day at school. I tried to get in touch with someone and it didn't really work out like I'd hoped."

Harry narrowed his eyes suspiciously at Kimberly's behavior. Her actions suggested more behind this than just 'someone' being angry. He decided to dig a bit further. "Do you wanna talk about it? I've been told many times in my life that it helps. Admittedly this was when I was trying to avoid talking about those very things, but the premise stands."

She finally looked at him, shooting him a small smile while unease drifted in her eyes. "Well, it's kinda… Tommy…"

Right. Her crush. The mystery man who fought Jason to a draw in the Youth Center's martial arts tournament. "I may not be the best person to talk to about relationships, but I'm willing to help as much as I can."

She looked rather unsure for a moment, but finally nodded. Returning her nod, Harry waved his wand and conjured a chair for her which she promptly took, sitting a few feet away and leaning forward slightly, wringing her hands as she stared at them blankly. "I talked to him at school yesterday. Bulk and Skull were harassing me as usual and he showed up and chased them off. I asked him if he wanted to hang out at the Youth Center after school and he agreed, but then never showed up."

Harry hummed thoughtfully. He had never really had much of a romantic life, though that wasn't for lack of options. Being the Boy-Who-Lived certainly came with a level of fame and that fame came with several witches, and a few wizards, who were interested in relationships with him. He just hadn't been interested in anyone who only wanted him for his fame. It was the hazard of being famous, he supposed. Of course even with his limited knowledge, he knew that standing a girl up on the first meeting, even if it wasn't really a date per say, was generally bad form and liable to upset her.

Oblivious to Harry's ruminations, Kimberly continued. "That's actually why I wanted to go to school this morning. I wanted to talk to him again. Maybe see what happened. Only…"

She trailed off and Harry nodded encouragingly after a few moments. "Only… what?"

"He seemed really mad at me. He was ignoring me for the first part of it. Wouldn't even look at me when I was talking to him or when he responded. He was just… so cold… And then when he finally did look at me he was… angry… I tried to find out why and…"

Harry frowned thoughtfully. "I got it. That seems like a rather random reaction though. You said he helped you out yesterday?"

She nodded. "Yeah, and he was so sweet then. It's like his entire personality took a 180."

Harry gave another nod before his eyes widened slightly as things began to click together in his mind. Tommy was an expert martial artist, able to tie Jason in the tournament. He had agreed to meet with Kimberly after school the day before and had been generally nice to her. Then Zordon had sent Harry to investigate the site of a teleportation spell from Rita where he found Tommy's school bag. Now Tommy was acting cold and angry, almost completely the opposite from how he was acting before.

At the same time, the Green Ranger showed up later in the same day as the teleportation spell was detected. He was also an expert martial artist, able to match and then defeat Jason in morph. From the few words Harry had exchanged with him, Green was fanatically devoted to Rita, but seemed to have a rather vicious personality himself.

It was too much to be a coincidence.

Standing quickly, Harry grabbed Kimberly's attention with the urgent look on his face. "What's wrong, Harry?" she asked, confusion in her voice.

Harry just shook his head. "I just had a scary thought. Come on, I need to show you guys something."

Still confused and now a bit worried, Kimberly followed Harry out of his room. The wizard called everyone together before casting a summoning charm, bringing Tommy's school bag from its spot against one wall to his free hand where he caught the strap and set it down by his feet.

"What's up, Harry?" Zack asked, panting slightly from his workout but seemingly more relaxed than earlier. "And what's with the green bag?"

Harry looked over the four Rangers and the robot standing around him before gesturing to the bag. "Zordon sent me to Angel Grove yesterday just after you guys got out of school. Rita had used a rather powerful teleportation spell in an alley near your high school and he wanted me to see if there was any clue as to what happened. I found a few signs of a potential struggle and this bag."

"Ok…" Kimberly said slowly. "So what's the big deal?"

Harry crouched down and unzipped the bag as he continued speaking. "Later that afternoon, Green showed up here in the Command Center. This then lead into our battle with him last evening. Kimberly talked to Tommy yesterday and again today and told me he had a drastic personality change."

Trini shot Kimberly a sympathetic look. "Well maybe he was having a bad day."

Harry pulled out the math book he had looked at yesterday and opened the cover, showing the other Rangers Tommy's name. "I would be inclined to agree if this wasn't his bag."

Billy seemed to be the first to come to the same conclusion Harry did. "So your hypothesis is that Tommy is…"

"No way!" Kimberly interrupted, seemingly aghast at the idea.

"I'm telling you, it all fits." Harry insisted, seeing that Zack and Trini were speechless. "Both are skilled martial artists. Tommy's bag was found in an alleyway where Zordon detected a teleportation spell by Rita but Tommy was nowhere to be found. Then Green shows up and now Tommy is behaving drastically different from before the teleportation spell. I don't see any other conclusion here."

Billy nodded thoughtfully. "Your conclusion seems rather sound to me."

Kimberly, though, still seemed to be in denial. "No… It… It can't be true…"

Trini stepped toward her and put a comforting hand on her shoulder as Harry repacked and closed Tommy's bag. Standing again, he rested a hand on her other shoulder and looked her in the eye. "It's very possible that I'm wrong Kimberly, but I don't think I am. Look at the bright side though. If he is the Green Ranger and he's acting so differently than before, then that probably means Rita has him under some kind of personality altering spell. Based on how fanatical he is toward her, I would imagine it's some kind of loyalty brainwashing."

"How is that a bright side?" Zack snarked, looking only slightly less upset than Kimberly.

Harry shot Zack a look. "Because, Zack, if he's under a spell, then we can break it."

Kimberly perked up instantly. "And when we do, he might join our side."

Trini smiled at Kimberly's reaction. "And then we'll have another Ranger to help us fight Rita."

Billy practically jumped in happiness. "Morphinominal! Our chances of success would increase exponentially with another Ranger on our side!"

Zack smirked. "Yeah, and Kimberly can get her date then too."

The blush that lit up Kimberly's face was one for the record books. Harry, being the second closest to her next to Trini, almost felt the heat her skin was letting off. Zack seemed inordinately proud of himself for finally getting through with his teasing, but before he could follow up with anything else, the alarms in the Command Center started going off.

"Ai yai yai yai yai!" Alpha sounded panicked as he walked to a control console and pressed a button. "Rangers, I'm bringing the alert up on the Viewing Globe."

Harry and the Rangers made their way over the short distance to the white orb mere moments before it flickered and changed. The image revealed was that of the Green Ranger, this time wielding a sword with a slight 'S' curve to it. The figure was laughing at something as he swung his weapon seemingly randomly.

"Looks like Green has a new toy," Zack commented.

"I concur," Billy responded. "He appears to be testing its capabilities."

"Yeah," Harry said slowly. "So if all he's doing is messing around with his new weapon, why did the alarm go off?"

Alpha was quick to provide an answer. "The computer is programmed to detect negative energies anywhere around Angel Grove. That sword is practically made of dark magics! In fact…" Alpha took a few steps closer to the Viewing Globe, leaning in close before practically jumping backward. "It's the Sword of Darkness! Ai yai yai!"

"What's the Sword of Darkness?" Kimberly asked, not taking her eyes off the image in the Globe.

"It is a magical sword of immense dark power," Alpha answered as he made his way back to the computers. "Long ago, Zordon was responsible for keeping it from the forces of evil, but Rita managed to steal it and has kept it hidden ever since. It seems as though she has decided to give it to the Green Ranger."

Zack stood with his arms crossed, eyeing the image in front of him. After a moment, he nodded and turned to face the others. "Guys, I think we need to go after him."

"What!" Kimberly's shout easily eclipsed the others, but their sentiments were nearly the same.

"No, think about it," Zack answered, his hands held up in a placating gesture. "He's got a new sword, yes, but he may not know what it can do yet. If this thing is so powerful, we'd be better off if we went after him now before he learns."

"But what about Jason?" Billy asked. "Should we head out without him? Can we?"

Zack looked him in the eyes with a sigh. "I don't think we have much choice this time, Billy. This may be our best chance to take him down. And if it is Tommy under there and we beat him, we can capture him and try to break Rita's spell."

This last comment was clearly aimed toward Kimberly as she immediately perked up slightly. The girl then nodded. "Alright, you've got my vote."

Billy looked uneasy, but nodded as well. "This is a rather opportune moment. It would be a mistake to let such an opportunity go to waste."

Trini looked around with a sigh, seeing that she would be outvoted regardless of her answer, nodded as well. "Alright, but remember that this guy is no pushover. We had a lot of trouble with him even before he got his sword."

"Yeah, but this time we'll know not to hold back." Zack was smiling now. "We can do this guys."

Harry had watched the byplay stoically. Now, seeing that the Rangers were all psyched up, or at least willing to go along with it, Harry sighed and waved his wand, conjuring up a long, hooded cloak that he quickly grabbed and put on.

"What's that for Harry?" Trini asked.

Harry merely gestured to the Viewing Globe. "There's really no telling what kind of area he's in right now, but it looks decidedly less remote than last time." Indeed it was that the image of Green was swinging his sword around in a clearly well maintained, grassy area, a cliff of some sort a short distance behind him with water visible beyond that. "If I'm going to join you guys this time, I'll need some way to disguise myself from any bystanders who might be able to recognize me in the future."

This only seemed to make Zack even more excited. "You see guys! With Harry and his magic on our side there's no way we can lose this! You ready?"

The other three nodded, apparently catching his enthusiasm themselves. Harry merely gave a grim smile before casting an obscuring charm on his hood, hiding his face in permanent shadow. With a few more spells to ensure the hood wouldn't come off, Harry counted himself ready. He just hoped that this enthusiasm didn't lead to them biting off more than they could chew.

-MR-

The four morphed Rangers teleported down in an area on the outskirts of Angel Grove. Shortly after their arrival, Harry appeared with a soft pop of displaced air before taking a look around.

The area was thankfully clear of people, though the fact that its only modern type feature seemed to be a paved walking trail some distance behind them was probably the reason for that. The grass was otherwise well cared for and he noticed a few trees a short distance away from the far side of the paved path. In the other direction, the cliff edge he saw in the Viewing Globe was easily noticeable as was the water of a bay, a harbor and the rest of Angel Grove proper visible on the far side. To either side, the cliff continued around, sloping down gradually in some places and abruptly in others, eventually coming together at a rocky beach that followed the coastline out of sight.

Green was rather easy to notice. He was standing almost calmly between the Rangers and the cliff edge, having stopped his practice the moment the Rangers had teleported in. Once Harry appeared, he started laughing darkly. "I knew you would all show up sooner or later. Where's the Red Ranger? Too afraid to face me again?"

"We're more than enough to handle you, pal!" Zack fired back, stepping up to the front of their group.

"And you're hardly one to be mocking us when I distinctly remember knocking you around rather nicely when last we met." Harry followed, idly spinning his wand around in his hand.

Green's entire stance shifted. Harry could almost feel the change in the air as the Green Ranger's helmeted head turned to face him fully. "Yes, you may have won our last bout, but my Empress has given me a new tool with which to defeat you and the Power Rangers. Behold, the Sword of Darkness!" As he spoke, Green thrust the curved weapon into the air, causing a loud boom of thunder as green lightning sprouted from the sword and arced menacingly into the sky above them.

"Fine words and a nice toy." Harry responded, maintaining his outwardly easygoing stance even as he tensed in preparation. "But can you back it up?"

Green spun the sword in one hand before taking a fighting stance. "Why don't you come over here and find out? Or better yet, I'll show you!" Without further comment, Green began a headlong charge toward Harry and the Rangers, the Sword of Darkness held out to one side.

"Come on guys!" Zack shouted, getting an immediate affirmative from the others before they ran to meet Green head on, blade blasters in hand in their blade configuration.

Harry sighed a bit at Zack's rather direct approach, but readied himself to support the Rangers. There was no way he was going to try and get close to Green on his own. The evil Ranger could already easily defeat him up close, but he was an even bigger danger to the wizard with that sword.

Harry's first opportunity came rather quickly. The four Rangers had charged Green with their blades, which were easily parried as they passed him but resulted in Rita's devoted servant surrounded by the four. Green was not easily cowed though, as he shifted his stance closer to Billy and swung the Sword of Darkness faster than the Ranger was able to react.

Just before his strike hit, however, a chain sprung from the ground and secured itself around the outstretched arm holding the sword, effectively stopping the strike cold. Green jerked his arm a few times before Billy finally reacted, striking Green across his golden shield and staggering him slightly.

Acting quickly, Trini, Kimberly, and Zack moved in and made their own attacks, finally knocking Green to the ground with a quick kick from the Black Ranger, making him roll closer to where the chain was rooted to the ground. In an attempt to finish the battle quickly, Harry flicked his wand and transfigured three more chains into existence around the downed Ranger before animating them to restrain his other limbs. In the meantime the other Rangers, led by Zack, regrouped between Harry and the Green Ranger, brandishing their blade blasters as they took fighting stances again.

Green was far too adaptable to be caught so easily though. He easily tossed the Sword or Darkness into the air with a flick of his right wrist before snatching it with his left hand and using it to sever the chain lashing at that limb. With a quick tuck and roll, he flipped himself backwards over his head and onto his feet, avoiding the chains heading for his legs, and cut the chain already holding his right arm free as he stood.

"A valiant attempt, wizard," Green taunted as he grasped the chain now hanging from his arm and began twirling it. "But ultimately futile. Without the Red Ranger here, none of you stand a chance against me!"

Green once more moved too quickly for the other Rangers to react. He moved so quickly his form appeared to blur only to appear an instant later in front of the assembled Rangers standing five feet in front of Harry. With a small grunt of effort, he swung the chain forward, smashing it into Kimberly's left arm and knocking her into Billy, making him stumble before they both fell. Then he pivoted, slashing Zack across his torso with the Sword of Darkness and sending him to the ground in a shower of sparks and with a black scorch mark on his chest. Finishing his spin, He lashed out with the chain, letting the excess that was coiled around his arm go loose as he did, and wrapped it around Trini's neck with the momentum. Laughing once more, Green jerked on the chain, pulling the choking Yellow Ranger toward him as he prepared his weapon.

Harry narrowed his eyes before sending a tripping jinx at Trini, making her fall flat to the ground and narrowly avoiding Green's slice. Once she was out of his line of fire, Harry unleashed a flurry of offenses hexes and jinxes, much like he had the day before. This time, however, Green was at least partially prepared.

Swinging his sword before him, Green managed to deflect the spells he couldn't simple dodge, either sending them to the area around him or outright sending them back toward Harry, forcing the wizard to dodge or shield against his own spells. When a deflected bludgeoning curse smashed into Billy just after he managed to stand again and knocked him to the ground Harry nearly snarled.

Green's laughter only got louder. "You see, wizard? You cannot hope to defeat me. I am the Green Ranger! Loyal servant of Empress Rita! I shall lead her forces to victory over you, the Power Rangers, and then all of the Earth! The Power will be hers to do with as she wishes and then nothing will be able to stop her!"

At this point Trini, having long since rolled out of the way and returned to her feet, took a flying leap and landed a powerful double kick right to Green's back, making the evil Ranger fall to the ground with a curse. Harry sent a few piercing and blasting spells at his downed form, only for him to quickly roll out of the way and regain his feet as the Rangers regrouped around Harry again around 15 feet away.

Green sank further into his fighting stance, brandishing his sword in his left hand while twirling the chain he had purloined in his right, waiting for the Rangers to make a move.

"Man…" Zack panted, keeping a wary eye on Green. "We just can't make any headway here."

"I know," Kimberly said with a nod. "Every time we get close he takes us down like it's nothing."

"If he really is Tommy, we know that he's already a superior martial artist." Billy said thoughtfully. "It only makes sense that having a Power Coin would make him even better still."

"And it probably doesn't help that Rita gave him a further boost with her magic and Harry's old wand." Trini added, sounding glum.

"Yeah…" Zack said slowly before perking up. "Harry, couldn't you do something like that for us? Like use your magic to super power us so we can better fight against this guy?"

Harry frowned from within his hood's shadows. "Not exactly. Not with an unstable wand. And most definitely not the time to talk about it now." With a quick snap of his wrist, Harry launched a wide area banisher toward Green who had leapt at the group after apparently losing his patience.

As the Ranger tumbled, he lost hold on the chain which Harry quickly animated and sent toward him again. As the other Rangers charged toward their foe once more, Green easily bisected the chain with his weapon, once more breaking the spell animating it, before tearing through the four Rangers with his superior combat prowess.

Harry growled to himself as he searched for an opening. This wasn't working out very well. The Rangers weren't good enough to match Green's skills and Harry couldn't use the same technique he had against him before because of how intermixed the group was. Even not considering the Sword of Darkness being able to deflect his spells, the chances of hitting an ally were too high to start rapid firing destructive magics around. This was apparently something that Green had figured into his new approach as he now seemed to be taking extra care to always have his sword or another Ranger between Harry and himself whenever possible.

Harry would just have to try and work around that.

With a short twist, Harry apparated to the other side of the group battle, landing a few feet away from the cliff at the edge of the bluff they were fighting on. Waving his wand frantically, Harry started casting a quick barrage of encumbering spells, hoping to catch Green off guard with his new position but not wanting to fire anything too destructive for fear of hitting one of his allies.

The tactic worked, if only briefly, as the first spell hitting him and being dispelled by his latent defenses was enough to redirect the Green Ranger to Harry's new location. This allowed him to adjust his position, once more putting living obstacles between himself and the wizard.

So Harry apparated again.

This cycle repeated several times. Harry would apparate to Green's blind spot, hit him with a spell or two of a generally encumbering nature, and then Green would shift his position, triggering the entire process all over again.

Finally, Harry caught a break when Green grew overconfident, managing to strike all four of the attacking Power Rangers with a single spinning strike with the Sword of Darkness. This attack left the Rangers on the ground with fresh scorch marks on their suits, but it also left Green without his shields. Harry took advantage of this with a smirk. " _Reducto!_ " The red curse flew through the air and smashed into Green's chest with force, sending him flying away from Harry's current position and closer to the edge of the cliff in a shower of sparks.

The Rangers slowly climbed to their feet, fatigue wearing on them, but determination surging on strong in their hearts and minds as Harry jogged up near them. Green, using the Sword of Darkness as a crutch, slowly climbed to his own feet. "I will admit…" he panted as he glared. "The five of you make an impressive team. I may outmatch any one of you individually, but the wizard more than makes up for any flaws in your close combat forms. With his new focus, I dare say that you could potentially defeat me… if the Red Ranger was here as well…" He chuckled darkly when the other Rangers gave a short start at his comment.

"You know, that's the second time you've brought him up," Harry commented evenly through his own heavy breathing. "If I were the suspicious type I might think you knew something about his disappearance…"

Green's chuckle turned into a deep laugh. "Did it really take you all this long to figure it out?"

"So you do have Jason!" Zack shouted, anger evident in his voice.

"Yes," Green drawled, once more brandishing his sword in front of him. "I extended an invitation to him to join my Empress Rita at her palace. He, of course, could not refuse such a generous offer…"

Kimberly, it seemed, couldn't hold her curiosity any further. "Tommy, why are you doing this?!"

The Green Ranger froze for a moment before his helmeted face turned toward hers. "So…" he drawled. "You've figured out who I am as well."

"Yes, Tommy," Kimberly pleaded, taking a step forward. "Please, let us help you. We know that Rita has you under some kind of spell. We can break it. You don't have to do this."

Tommy's stance relaxed, his sword pointing to the ground at his feet as his head dropped as well. After a moment, his shoulders began shaking slightly. A barely noticeable movement at first that gradually grew to become more easily visible. Then his laughter picked up, deeper and more ominous than before. "You idealistic fools!" He roared at them clenching his free hand into a fight fist. "You all hope that everything will work out happily, but there is no happy ending here. Not for you. My only goal, my only dream, is to forever serve my Empress. And I can best do that by destroying you all here and now!"

Without any further hesitation, Tommy charged them again, catching all five of his opponents off guard at the abruptness of his action. Within moments, Zack and Billy, the two closest to him, were rolling across the ground after a vicious pair of strikes from the Sword of Darkness. Trini and Kimberly made a valiant attempt at fighting him off, each of them throwing high kicks at opposite sides of his head, but he merely blocked them with his forearms before flinging his arms out, throwing the two girls off balance, and then knocked them aside with a pair of his own kicks.

This left Harry standing a mere five feet away from the furious form of the Green Ranger.

Harry blinked.

Tommy charged the last few steps between them in moments, barely giving Harry a chance to dodge under his vicious sword strike before planting a straight kick right into his chest. Harry went flying back several feet before hitting the ground and sliding to a halt around twenty feet away from the evil Ranger.

Slowly, gingerly, Harry climbed back to his feet, his free hand clutching at his sore and most likely bruised chest. "Yes, your teamwork is rather good as it is." Tommy spoke as he slowly walked toward Harry, seemingly unconcerned with the Power Rangers climbing to their own feet behind and around him. "But I'm better."

-MR-

Thanks for reading and don't forget to review

Tenstar12


	11. Chapter 11

Magi Ranger

By: Tenstar12

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or Power Rangers.

 **Chapter 11, In Which Zack Totally Escalates the Crap Outta Things**

Tommy stalked slowly toward Harry as he backed up, still holding his left hand to his chest in response to the pain. "To think," Tommy mocked with a laugh. "After all the trouble you gave Goldar, I was able to beat you in our first real battle."

Harry winced as a particularly rough step back jarred his injuries. "I'm pretty sure our first real battle was yesterday when I beat you down without you touching me. And if it weren't for that sword of yours this one would probably have gone similarly."

Not paying attention to where he was going, Harry backed into the edge of the paved walkway behind him, which was enough to make him fall to his back. He immediately looked toward the Green Ranger, expecting to see his sword coming down to end his life, but instead noticed that he had frozen in place. The Ranger tilted his head to one side as he steadily gazed at the downed wizard. "Is that so?" Without another word, Tommy took a fighting stance, his visor flashing with an electric green light as he channeled his power into the Sword of Darkness.

Suddenly, Tommy spun in place, turning to face the four Rangers that had regained their feet and were preparing to charge to Harry's rescue. With a grunt of effort, he stabbed the Sword of Darkness into the ground at his feet. The energy held within it lanced out through the earth and toward the Rangers, causing en explosion that knocked them off their feet again and sent them rolling down the steep embankment at the edge of the bluff.

Harry watched with a detached sort of cautious curiosity as Tommy released the Sword, leaving it stuck in the ground before turning back to face him. "Alright, wizard." He began, clenching his right hand in front of his face. "You think you can defeat me in a straight fight, then here's your chance. We've both had advantages over the other in our first two meetings. We each in turn have had the element of surprise which was enough of an advantage to nearly decide the entire battle. Today, I have the Sword of Darkness, a force that you cannot possibly hope to stand against when I wield it."

Harry rolled his eyes as he scooted back a few more inches across the pavement, his tailbone expressing its discomfort from the fall. Tommy continued, his helmeted gaze never leaving Harry. "So instead we shall fight on a more level playing field: your magic against my power, unaugmented by the Sword of Darkness. Get back on your feet, Wizard, and I'll show you why I am Rita's chosen warrior."

Harry, not quite believing he was lucky enough to still be alive, slowly climbed to his feet, his wand tightly clenched in his right hand as his left was used for leverage. "That's surprisingly decent of you." He said in a faux-pleasant tone. "Make me all warm inside, it does."

Tommy's voice practically dripped with venom. "Make no mistake, I plan to destroy you and the Power Rangers one and all. I just want you to understand how completely outmatched you are when you die."

Harry internally scoffed. He certainly hoped that Tommy wasn't normally this cocky and self-absorbed or they may have some serious problems if and when they managed to break Rita's spell. All the same, he found himself unable to really complain about it as this same attitude is the only reason he hadn't been bisected already.

Moving as quickly as his injuries would allow, Harry stepped back from Tommy, putting around ten feet between them, and gave him a short, almost mocking bow. "So it'll be a duel then. Very well." With a wave of his wand Harry conjured up another blank faced silver shield much like the day before and set it to hover over his left forearm. Once his defense was taken care of he raised his wand to point at the Green Ranger. "Whenever you're ready, mate."

Tommy's body tensed before he shot forward, taking two short steps before launching himself into the air with a flying kick. Harry brought his shield forward, easily catching the Ranger's attack on its face, before casting a mild banisher to launch him away. Before his opponent could recover, Harry gave his wand a flick and fire immediately began spewing out, seemingly without end.

Tommy paused for a moment, watching as the flames grew at Harry's feet before gathering into a single long strand with one end anchored on Harry's focus. With a smirk, Harry lashed his wand forward, the flame whip following the motion to strike out at the somewhat shocked Ranger, his instincts the only thing that prevented him from being hit straight on.

Seeing him roll to one side, Harry gave the Green Ranger no time to recover, knowing that if he did so he would lose any and all advantage he managed to gain immediately. He had no illusions of his real chances in a fight against Rita's Ranger. Just as Tommy had said, the only reason he had won so soundly the day before is because the Ranger had been caught completely off guard and Harry kept his momentum going throughout. His only real hope was to follow a similar pattern and hope things worked out.

After dodging a few more lashes of the flaming whip, Tommy took to the air again, leaping at Harry with one fist drawn back. Harry merely flicked his wand upward and flexed the fingers off his left hand. The fire attached to his wand reacted to his will and leapt up all at once even as a levitation spell caught Tommy and stopped him cold. The fire coiled around the airborne Ranger and trapping his arms to his sides as his suit started letting off a near continuous shower of sparks, testifying to the damage the magical flames were dealing.

Tommy's scream of pain and frustration rang out across the bluff, but Harry's face remained focused. He was too busy concentrating on maintaining the fire whip with his wand and nearly constantly refreshing levitation spell from his off-hand as the Ranger's magical protections fought it off. After several seconds maintaining the two spells, Harry felt his wand shudder as the unstable magic in it fluctuated causing the fire whip to fizzle out spontaneously. Deciding to go with it, Harry let the levitation spell fade as well, slumping slightly as his magic relaxed and Tommy fell to the ground.

Drawing himself up as best he could, Harry pointed his wand at the downed Ranger. "I'll ask you one more time: have you had enough?"

Just as the last time Harry asked Green that question while holding him at wandpoint, Harry was interrupted. This time however, it wasn't by the Ranger in question. No, Tommy was too busy recovering from the pain he had been subjected to while held by Harry's spells.

So focused was he on his opponent, Harry didn't even notice the high pitched mumbling sound before the first putty patroller slammed into his shield with a powerful flying kick, sending the magical construct into his left arm and torso rather painfully and knocking him to the ground. The shield had largely stopped any damage, spreading out the force and thus lessening the impact on any one spot, but Harry still felt the shock of pain run all throughout his arm and his already injured chest.

Struggling to climb to his feet, Harry narrowly managed to duck under a swipe from yet another putty that ran up just behind the first one, looking to press their advantage. With a growl, Harry wandlessly banished the putty, while simultaneously sending an _Incendio_ at the first with his wand, igniting the clay construct and causing it to start thrashing around where it lay, apparently in a panic.

Upon regaining his feet, Harry felt his heart sink a bit. There before him, gathered around the slowly recovering Green Ranger were the slightly crouched figures of an even dozen putty patrollers. Worse still, Goldar stood behind them, his arms crossed and a decidedly mocking look in his eyes.

"Did you miss me, Mageling?" the simian taunted smugly.

Harry panted slightly as he wearily eyed Rita's general. "Every day, Goldar. You know my day isn't complete until I've thrown you around a bit. I have so missed our games these last weeks."

Goldar's eyes narrowed at the insult, slight though it was, but any response he was going to make was interrupted by a sudden outburst from the Green Ranger. "What are you doing here?" he demanded fiercely once he finally regained his feet, a slight stumble and a trail of scorch marks spiraling around his suit the only sign of the damage Harry had caused. "I had everything under control."

Goldar shot him an angry look. "Yes, you did. And then you decided to play honor games with the mageling. Because of your foolishness Mistress Rita sent me down to save you and finish the job."

"Your help is not needed." By this time Tommy was right in front of Goldar, staring directly into the golden armored monster's face.

Harry felt rather forgotten for a moment.

A moment that quickly passed as two more putties came up from behind him and yanked on his cloak, pulling him backward, off balance, before they roughly grabbed his arms, holding him in a tight grip even as a third jerked his wand from his grasp, his shield vanishing as well when his concentration was broken. Seeing this, Goldar's look became smug. "You're right. The task is already done so my help is not needed."

Tommy spun around to see Harry being held by the putties and growled, clenching his fists tight in anger. Goldar ignored his reaction as he turned to the Sword of Darkness and easily pulled it free from the ground. Turning back to the Green Ranger, Goldar spoke again. "Now finish the job. Your honor means nothing if it leads you to failing your empress. Slay the mageling so we can move on to the Power Rangers." He held the weapon out to Tommy who took it with what seemed like a bit of hesitation before firmly grasping it the moment his fingers brushed the grip, standing just a bit straighter as the magic of the weapon washed over him once more.

The Green Ranger turned back to Harry, idly swinging his blade in front of him before laughing darkly. "You are correct Goldar. I nearly lost sight of what really matters here: Empress Rita's victory."

As the Green Ranger stalked slowly toward him Harry couldn't help but note the sudden personality change in him. It was almost as if the sword brought out a darker side of him the moment he touched it. Alpha had told them that the Sword possessed a great deal of dark magic, so that could well be the truth.

His thoughts were brought to a halt as he felt the cold tip of the sword come to rest under his chin, feeling the pressure exerted there as Tommy used it to raise his head up higher. Harry scowled reaching down for his magic to fight back only for one of the putties restraining him to fiercely plant its fist into his stomach, knocking the wind out of him.

The Sword of Darkness was pulled away from him as Harry fell to his knees, gasping for air for a moment before being hauled back to his feet by the two restraining him. "Now, now," Tommy taunted. "We'll have none of that." Once more the Sword of Darkness was used to raise his chin into the air.

As the evil Ranger pulled the sword back behind him to make a beheading strike, Harry heard Goldar start laughing. "Any last words, Wizard?" Tommy asked darkly, the satisfaction palpable in his voice.

Harry's response was cut off by a shout from across the clearing, behind the putties and Goldar.

"MASTODON DINOZORD POWER!"

The shout alone wouldn't have done much, but the accompanying earthquake that followed moments after certainly did the trick.

Tommy stumbled, his attack aborted in an effort to keep himself stable. The putties holding Harry had no such luck though as they quickly tumbled to the ground, pulling Harry down with them. Mere moments after the three hit the ground, there were several flashes of red light followed by sparks as the Green Ranger flew backwards and the two putties released Harry's arms just as Trini and Kimberly ran up next to him with their blade blasters drawn.

"Are you alright, Harry?" Trini asked, kneeling next to him to help him up while Kimberly kept her weapon ready and her eyes trained on the Green Ranger.

With her help, Harry slowly climbed back to his feet. "Cutting it a bit closer than usual aren't we? And I'll be fine in a second." His eyes quickly scanned the closest putties even as he called up his magic. Finding his target, Harry lifted his right hand. " _Accio!_ " The putty had no time to react as Harry's wand was ripped from its grasp and flew the short distance to its owner. " _Reducto!_ " Harry then wasted no time in turning the golem into a pile of rubble as his curse slammed into its torso.

Harry gave a happy sigh and a small smile as he turned to face Trini. "Alright, that's done. Now what's going on?"

Harry's answer came as the constant shaking took on a clearly definable rhythm and a loud trumpeting sound came from nearby.

Harry merely shot Trini and Kimberly a look. "He didn't…"

His question was answered when the unmistakable form of Zack's Mastodon Dinozord rose over the cliff edge with the Black Ranger himself perched atop its head for a moment before dropping down into the cockpit. Goldar and Tommy seemed stunned into immobility but the putties who had noticed the 40 foot tall machine were apparently starting to panic, running around in a random fashion and tripping over themselves and each other more often than not.

"We need to relocate ourselves," Billy said as he ran up from behind Harry and the girls. "Zack can't fully utilize his Zord's combat capabilities while we maintain our current proximity to his targets."

Harry blinked before giving the Blue Ranger a wide eyed look. "You don't have to tell me twice." Without thinking, Harry reached out and grabbed Kimberly's shoulder with his left hand while he hooked a few fingers around Billy's wrist while still holding his wand in his right. With Trini's hand still on his shoulder after helping him stand, Harry twisted slightly, pulling the three with him into a short-range apparition with a loud crack.

The four reappeared with a similar crack fifty yards away and they all dropped to the ground. Harry was wincing as his head immediately began throbbing in pain at his abrupt use of apparition with more passengers than was usually wise while the others were merely suffering from the sensations caused by the form of magical travel.

"Not awesome…" Kimberly moaned as she slowly regained her feet, unsteadily holding her blade blaster up in case it was needed.

"That is a remarkably uncomfortable method of travel…" Billy commented, following Kimberly's example.

Trini merely shot Harry an unseen glare from behind her helmet and lightly smacked his shoulder. "Not cool, Harry."

Any further comments were once more interrupted by the trumpeting of Zack's Zord as it let loose with a blast of cold air on the enemies before it, the excess washing over Harry and the other Rangers moments later. The putties were almost instantly frozen solid, but Goldar and the Green Ranger proved to be a bit more resilient.

The two warriors of evil stood their ground, Goldar now holding his sword in front of him as the focus for some kind of magical barrier that served to block most of the Zord's attack while Tommy planted the Sword of Darkness into the ground again to anchor himself in place, his golden armor glinting with light as he weathered the onslaught. Once the airflow calmed, the two wasted no time in returning the favor. They immediately crossed their weapons and combining their energies before launching a bolt of dark magic directly at the Mastodon Dinozord.

The massive mammoth didn't even seem to shake as the attack hit, barely letting off any sparks from the contact point, before the twin tusks began glowing, gathering energy for yet another attack. Mere moments later, two bolts of electricity arced out from the tips of the tusks, raking across the ground and heading for Goldar and Tommy, who managed to teleport out of sight just before taking the hit.

The small-ish explosion that followed was enough to shatter the putty-cicles that had been left behind by the Zord's first attack though and the robot let out another trumpet of victory. Moments later, it vanished in a flash of black/purple light, leaving Zack to drop to the ground at the edge of the bluff in a crouch. Standing quickly, he ran towards where the others were still standing, panting heavily upon arrival. "Is everybody ok?"

Harry looked over at the silently staring Trini, Kimberly, and Billy before nodding to Zack himself. "We seem to be alright, though I'm not sure what's up with the silent treatment…"

Billy shook his head before speaking. "It'll have to wait until we're back at the Command Center, Harry. We don't have time to explain now."

Kimberly nodded her agreement. "Yeah, let's get out of here before Rita decides to send more putties."

Seeing the others nod in agreement, Harry sighed softly before twisting on the spot. Apparating out just as the others were teleported by Alpha.

-MR-

The silence in the Command Center lasted mere seconds after the Rangers demorphed before Kimberly spoke. "I can't believe you did that, Zack."

The Black Ranger quickly rounded on her, raising his voice slightly. "Well it's not like I had much choice you know. We were getting creamed out there!"

"Yeah," Trini followed up slowly. "But you know that you took things farther than we normally do."

"And what else could I do?!" Zack was definitely shouting now, his eyes wide as he did so. "Tommy and Goldar were about to kill Harry! He was too far away for us to do anything else!"

Billy stepped up to act as the peacekeeper. "We're not complaining about the results. We're merely concerned about the methods you used to achieve them."

Harry decided to step in at this point. "I certainly don't see any issue with what he did. Would one of you care to explain why you feel that summoning his Zord to save my arse is a bad thing?"

The Rangers turned to look at Harry before exchanging sheepish glances, apparently having forgotten he was there. Finally, Zack spoke. "When we first became Rangers, Zordon had us swear to three oaths."

Kimberly spoke next. "One of those oaths was to never escalate a battle unless Rita forces us to."

"So, what, you're worried that Zack took things too far?" Harry asked, still confused. "You think that doing what he did to save me, and probably all of us if we're honest, broke that oath?"

Billy, Kimberly, and Trini exchanged a few uneasy looks as a slight look of panic overtook Zack's face, as if the real scope of things was only just hitting him. "Zordon said that if we didn't follow the oaths we took that the Power would abandon us." Kimberly said slowly with her head down.

Harry gave each of the Rangers a blank look before turning to Alpha. "Do you have any thoughts on this, Alpha?"

The robot seemed to start, as if surprised it was being addressed. Finally, Alpha turned to face the others, leaning forward slightly as it did. "You are still a Power Ranger, Zack. The computers would have registered it if you had been stripped of your status as the Black Ranger even in their damaged state and you would have not been allowed in the Command Center. Since you are here, you are fine. I do feel that Zordon would caution you against repeating your actions though. The Zords are only meant for battling against totally insurmountable odds such as when fighting against Rita's giant monsters."

The smile that lit up Zack's face at Alpha's announcement was only matched by the palpable relief let off by the other three Rangers. Their friend would stay a Ranger after his potentially questionable actions of the day. The Rangers seemed perfectly willing to forget about the event now, but Harry simply couldn't.

While the Rangers busied themselves with various tasks around the Command Center, even if they were just watching and trying to learn as Billy and Alpha worked on the last few damaged consoles, Harry found himself wandering toward his room, lost in thought. Upon entering, he discarded his cloak and sat at his desk, idly performing some first aid charms to help heal his bruised and beaten body as he thought.

Having heard one of the oaths that Zordon had called for the Rangers to make in order to fight Rita, Harry was having a few disturbing flashbacks to the early parts of his war against Voldemort. In the first few months after the Second Blood War really began, Dumbledore, the then leader of the light side, had not allowed any real force to be used. The Order of the Phoenix were given orders only to stun and restrain their foes while the Death Eaters were under no such limitations.

Losses had been heavy for them in those months especially. Finally, during Harry's sixth year at Hogwarts and still long before he was able to get personally involved, Mad-Eye Moody, one of Dumbledore's closest friends and a veteran of the previous war, had finally convinced the headmaster to allow more powerful and damaging magics to be used. From what Harry was later told, Dumbledore had given a long speech about how a point had been made and he was doing his allies no favors by practically forbidding them to use any deciding force. He had made it clear that he wouldn't take action against them for using more force against the Death Eaters, but he didn't like it himself.

It had largely made little difference in the fight as it was. Many of the members of the order had continued with the same limited spell selection, their minds still set on Dumbledore's former opinion. It had cost a great many of them their lives.

By the time Harry had gotten involved in the war personally the damage had already been done. Voldemort was all but personally in control of Wizarding Britain, ruling the ministry from the shadows and hunting down pockets of resistance with in inner circle elites. At the same time, he was planning on taking his domination to the rest of the world, both Wizarding and muggle. The last remaining members of the Order were those who had been willing to fight dirty, practically, taking lives just as readily as the Death Eaters when the situation called for it. Those are the people who taught Harry most of what he knew about magical combat after Dumbledore's death.

You respond to various threat levels with similar levels of power and lethality, but if an opponent clearly has no problems escalating things themselves and you have an opportunity to end it before it gets to that point, then you take it. More Death Eaters were removed from the equation in the weeks following Moody taking over leadership of the Order than the entirety of the war before that point simply because of this philosophy. Many of those killed had been some of Voldemort's worst. Death Eater veterans from the first war who fought with impunity and little care for the Order's actions since they knew that they couldn't, or wouldn't, do anything to stop them with finality.

And now, much as Harry had said to Jason the day before, he found himself in a situation where the authority seemed to follow a similar line of thought to Dumbledore's early beliefs. He had hoped that there weren't any rules to that affect in his current situation, a hope that was buffered by the Rangers' tendency to blow the crap out of Rita's monsters on a regular basis. It seemed, however, that it was merely a matter of reactionary stages.

Don't pull weapons unless the enemy uses their own. Don't call the Zords unless the enemy is enough of an overwhelming threat to warrant their use, apparently only when they've grown to giant size. Always reacting. Never taking the initiative to remove a threat before it can hurt others. This was a type of tactic that rarely worked unless you were the overwhelmingly superior force and/or had little to no care for collateral damage.

In the current situation particularly, what with the Green Ranger easily outclassing each of the Rangers and Harry, they were clearly not anywhere close to the superior force. And a potential lack of care for collateral damage suggested several things about Zordon that Harry just didn't want to consider.

Though this might just explain part of Jason's outrage at Harry's attack on Tommy. If his mind was hardwired along Zordon's "don't escalate" mentality, it would easily explain part of his anger when Harry seemed prepared to destroy an otherwise defeated enemy.

Harry was drawn out of his musings by a loud beeping sound coming from the computers in the main room. He ran out just in time to see Alpha and the Rangers all gathered around the center console, Alpha frantically pushing buttons as the Rangers switched back and forth between watching him and watching Zordon's tube which now held a foggy and out of focus image of the entrapped wizard's head.

"Rangers… me… to…Grid… acquire… Rita's…" Zordon's voice was just as choppy as it had been when Harry first saw him vanish after Tommy's initial attack on the Command Center.

"It's no use Alpha, we still can't understand him!" Zack shouted.

"I'll try to boost the power of the signal beam," Billy said quickly before jogging over to another console and pressing several buttons.

Zordon continued talking, apparently unaffected by the struggles of those within the Command Center. "… seem… remain… in… other… overcome… know…"

"Power boosted by 43 percent!" Billy reported, making his way back to Alpha. "See if you can't modify the hyper-actuator frequency to allow for a more cohesive signal transpondence."

By this time Harry was standing a few feet away from the nervous Rangers as Alpha continued to work the controls, not even acknowledging Billy's comment. After a few more seconds, Zordon's speech cleared up significantly. "… Rangers… strong… and may the Power protect you."

The instant Zordon finished speaking the image of his face seemed to flicker worse than before. After a few distraught cries from Kimberly and Trini, his image disappeared entirely just before the lights in the Command Center went out, leaving them in total darkness.

" _Lumos._ " Harry intoned, barely lighting his wand before ' _nox'-_ ing it and lighting it again, this time with a more suitable light level. "Well," he said dryly. "That went well."

"Yeah," Zack responded with an eye roll. "What happened Alpha? I thought we had Zordon back for a second."

The robot nodded his dome-shaped head. "We nearly did Zack. In the last seconds there we had a full connection with Zordon, but the generators appear to have given out just after the connection was made. As long as we are running only on our backup generators I'm afraid we won't be able to properly reestablish communications with Zordon."

"Well right now we don't even seem to have backup power…" Trini said unhappily. Moments later, however, the ever present hum of machinery started up again, along with the lights. "Of course I could be wrong…"

"Backup power restored." Alpha said simply, returning to pressing buttons on his console. "I'm afraid it will take a few hours to get the primary generators running though. We've done enough repair work here that Billy and Trini can finish the rest of it while I focus on the generators. Once that's done, I should be able to use the data provided by this most recent signal to find Zordon again."

"And Jason," Billy commented. "We can't forget that Tommy admitted to having taken him captive."

Kimberly and Trini gasped while Zack clenched his fist with a growl. "I had forgotten about that!" Kimberly half-shouted. "Oh my gosh! We have to do something! There's no telling what they could be doing to him!"

Before the Rangers could work themselves into another fervor, the alarms in the Command Center sounded off once before falling silent. Alpha pressed a few more buttons before reporting. "Ai yai yai! The computers have picked up a massive magical surge in Angel Grove. It's another teleportation spell!"

Harry hummed in thought. "It sounds like Rita might have just sent Tommy back down…"

"Hey," Zack jumped in. "Maybe we can track him down! If we can get ahold of him and keep him from morphing we might be able to find out where they're holding Jason!"

Billy, Trini, and Kimberly exchanged looks before Kimberly shrugged. "It could work, I suppose…"

"But Billy and I need to stay here to help Alpha with the repairs." Trini said worriedly, shooting glances at everyone else.

Harry took a step closer. "I'll go with Zack and Kimberly then. I can use my invisibility cloak if I have to so he shouldn't be able to detect me. I doubt his magical resistance extends outside of his morph so I should be able to restrain him relatively easily if I get the chance."

When nobody else had a comment, Zack clapped his hands with a smile. "Alright then, it sounds like we've got a plan. Kimberly, Harry and I will head to Angel Grove and track down Tommy while you guys stay here and get things back in shape."

Everyone nodded, though Trini still looked worried. "Alright, just be careful out there guys."

Zack nodded as Kimberly gave Trini a short hug. "Don't worry Trini, we'll be alright," she turned to Harry. "And we're taking the Rad Bug. No way am I using your teleportation magic again."

Harry threw his arms up in the air as he made his way over to Billy's flying car. "What do you people have against magical travel?"

Billy's head popped up from where he had been hunched over the open control panel of a damaged console. "It was quite possibly the single most disturbingly uncomfortable instance in my life. I concur with Kimberly."

Zack shot the other three Rangers a look as Harry and Kimberly climbed into the car. "Come on, it can't be that bad can it?"

"Alright then Zack," Kimberly huffed. "Next time you can be the one to get squeezed into a tiny little tube and yanked around when Harry wants to take you somewhere."

"I promise it gets better with practice." Harry interjected, feeling like he needed to defend his magic.

"Yeah, I'm just not too eager to have that practice if it's all the same to you, Harry." Kimberly responded as Zack climbed into the driver's seat and started the car.

"Hang on," the Black Ranger warned as he started working some of the controls and the Rad Bug lifted off the ground. For Harry's part, he was just wondering how this car would compare to Mr. Weasley's flying car from his second year…

-MR-

Don't forget to review,

Tenstar12


	12. Chapter 12

Magi Ranger

By: Tenstar12

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or Power Rangers.

 **Chapter 12, In Which Harry Becomes Potter… Harry Potter…**

The Rad Bug was actually surprisingly similar to Mr. Weasley's flying car, apart from the fact that it apparently used science and technology to fly as opposed to magic.

The first thing he noticed was that it was rather more cramped as far as elbow room went. Not surprising since his previous flying car experience came with an internal space expansion charm standard. This didn't really have too much of an effect on Harry during this trip as it was just him in the back while Kimberly and Zack rode up front, but he could tell it would be a rather tight fit with too many more.

As far as the flight went, aside from a few jerks and drops when they first took off and again when they landed, the Rad Bug flew much smoother than Mr. Weasley's car. That certainly could have been because Ron had been flying the car last time, but the fact remained.

When they finally landed, around twenty minutes after takeoff, they drove around a few slow turns before finally parking in what he was told was Billy's garage/lab, Harry decided that the only real issue he had with the Rad Bug over Mr. Weasley's car is that the Rad Bug had a radio. Zack's taste in music was far from appealing to Harry.

"Alright," Zack spoke as the three gathered in front of the now parked car. "How do we want to do this?"

Harry thought for a moment. "Why don't you guys go to the Youth Center? It wouldn't surprise me if he's trying to maintain his normal cover as best he can. That's about the only reason I can think of for Rita to send him down outside an attack anyway. If my guess is right, he's probably gonna be there or at his home, which we don't know the location of."

After a few more moments Kimberly spoke up. "And what about you? What'll you be doing while we scope out the Youth Center?"

"I'm going to apparate to the location of the teleportation spell under my cloak and try and find him from there. Whether or not I find anything, I'll contact you and we can work from there."

Zack smiled and started bouncing in place in his excitement. "Alright then, let's get going!"

Harry shot him a small smile before reaching into a pocket and pulling out the Cloak of Invisibility. "Couldn't have said it any better myself." With a flourish, he wrapped the cloak around his shoulders, fastening it around his neck in the same smooth motion, and flipped up the hood. "Stay safe, and contact me if you need me." Harry didn't even give them time to respond before vanishing with a soft pop, reappearing almost instantly in a familiar alley near Angel Grove High School.

Looking around, Harry couldn't see anything really different from the last time he had been here, apart from the lack of Tommy's school bag that is. Carefully drawing his wand so as to stay under the Cloak, Harry cast a revealing charm only to learn that there were two humans nearby... In a dumpster…

As Harry moved closer he could hear various whispers and hisses as the two talked only for them to suddenly go silent when Harry accidentally kicked a stone, making enough noise to catch their attention. Curious now, Harry glanced around for onlookers before lowering the hood and pushing the cloak off his shoulders before stepping up to the dumpster and throwing the lid up.

Bulk and Skull stared up at him from within, covered in garbage and blinking at the sudden daylight. "What the hell are you two doing in there?"

Bulk squinted at him for a second before visibly relaxing. "Hey, you're that geek Ernie has working at the Youth Center!"

"Yeah!" Skull parroted. "You're that geek!"

Harry rolled his eyes, subtly pocketing his wand again. "And my question remains. What are you doing in a dumpster?"

Bulk's face paled slightly, his eyes widening in fear before he started speaking. "It was that new kid. Tommy. We saw him in the alley and decided to… see how he was doing… But then his eyes started glowing and he was glaring at us… We decided to… uh… calmly walk away and then something picked us up and threw us in here." The entire time Skull was nodding stupidly.

Harry could easily read between the lines. Based on what Kimberly had said, Tommy had stood up against these two to get them to leave her alone at school. Obviously they decided to try and get even with him when they saw him alone in the alley, probably just after he was teleported down. Tommy had then somehow used his Green Power to scare them off and then throw them into a dumpster. In all honesty they probably got off rather easily seeing as he could have killed them.

Shaking his head slightly, Harry refocused on the dumpster diving teens. "Did you see which way he went by any chance?"

Bulk gave a shaky nod toward the far end of the alley. "He had a gym bag with him too. He might have been heading for the Youth Center… Are you gonna try and go after him?"

Harry ignored his question, offering a hand to the skinnier form of Skull. "Come on guys, let's get you out of there. Once we have you out, Skull, we can work together to help Bulk."

It took a few minutes of heaving, and much whining and cursing, to get the two out. Finally, once they were once more standing on pavement, Harry looked them over casually, once more palming his wand. "Well, you two were rather helpful today."

Bulk looked up from where he was brushing off his pants. "We were?"

"Yeah… we were?"

Harry nodded. "Yes, surprisingly so. In fact, _Obliviate_!" Harry focused his magic tightly, fighting against the imbalance in his wand to make sure he only removed the memories regarding Tommy and their recent encounter up until Harry helped them out of the dumpster. It wouldn't do to have these two connecting Tommy with strange powers. It could well lead to them learning the secrets of the Rangers, even as dim as they were.

With Bulk and Skull staring blankly into space, Harry once more pulled the Cloak of Invisibility around him and vanished. As he turned and started walking the way that they indicated Tommy had gone, he heard the bully and his sidekick start squabbling and arguing about how they had gotten there. He sighed as he shook his head. Those two reminded him of a strange combination of Draco Malfoy and Crabbe and Goyle. They felt they were more important than they really were but didn't have the brains, or the common sense, to back up anything they tried to do, relying instead on Bulk's muscle and nebulous wit.

Shrugging, Harry activated his communicator once he was sure he was out of easy hearing range. "Zack, Kimberly, come in. It's Harry."

Moments later, his communicator gave off a chirp. "Go ahead Harry." Zack's voice sounded slightly out of breath. "We're nearly at the Youth Center now. Did you already find something?"

Harry nodded before remembering they couldn't see him. "Yeah. I found a… well, let's just say a source that is rather questionable at the best of times that said Tommy may be heading for the Youth Center."

Zack said nothing for several seconds. "… Do I even want to ask?"

Harry chuckled. "Bulk and Skull were thrown into a dumpster by Tommy when they tried to engage him shortly after he was teleported down. I got them out and wiped their memories of the encounter before calling you."

There was another pause before Zack spoke again. "So you think he really is coming to the Youth Center?"

"I don't know but I just wanted to give you guys a heads up just in case."

Harry heard Zack huff slightly before responding. "Alright, thanks Harry. We'll keep an eye out. Are you heading this way now too?"

Harry nodded again before cursing internally. He'd never get used to these stupid communicators! "Yeah, I'm going to make my way there on foot so I won't pass him up if he's really going that way. I don't want to apparate past him and get caught off guard myself."

"Sounds good. See you soon then."

Harry gave his affirmative and deactivated his communicator. Remaining under his cloak, Harry lay his wand flat on his palm and whispered, "Point Me Angel Grove Youth Center." His wand lifted unsteadily before spinning to point slightly to his right, showing that he was at least heading in the right direction. Then, having another thought, he cancelled the charm and tried again. "Point Me Tommy Oliver." The wand lifted once more before pointing in the same direction.

"Well, that is indeed convenient," Harry mused before setting off, finally exiting the alley and merging with the crowd as only an invisible person can.

-MR-

Harry was quick to learn that his limited experience using the Cloak to travel through Hogwarts after curfew and on a few missions with the Order wasn't enough to prepare him for traveling through a city during the day. Everyone seemed to be in their own kind of hurry and more than once Harry found himself nearly colliding with various people numerous times despite his own attempts to stay out of the way. And the sad thing was, he knew he wasn't really in the busiest part of the city. Traveling through crowds under his cloak in Downtown Angel Grove would probably be impossible if his current difficulties were anything to go by.

After twenty minutes of frustration and difficulties, Harry finally made it within sight of the Youth Center. It was with a great deal of relief that he tucked himself into a corner a short distance from the public entrance and activated his communicator again. "I'm here."

This time it was Kimberly who responded. "So are we. And so is Tommy…"

Her voice trailed off and Harry rolled his eyes. "Alright Kimberly, stop ogling Tommy and let's get back to business."

Zack answered him with the slightest hint of a chuckle. "Sorry, Harry. He's working out and Kimberly has been hard pressed to stop staring. This girl has it bad."

Harry sighed before answering. "So it would seem. Have you guys found anything else?"

"Not really," Zack let out a sigh of his own. "Nobody knows where Jason might be, though one of our classmates said that he saw him heading into the school a bit after classes ended. That's it."

Harry raised an eyebrow. "I thought we had already concluded that Rita had Jason. Why ask around for him?"

"To cover up for our being here," Zack said quickly. "It was Kim's idea. This way it won't be suspicious that we're hanging around the Youth Center. We're just looking for our buddy. This way, Tommy won't get suspicious."

Harry processed that for a moment before responding. "I hate to ruin your plan for you, Zack, but Rita knows who you guys are. She would have to if only because it sounds like Jason was kidnapped out of uniform. If she knows, it's a safe bet Tommy knows too…"

"Shit!" Zack's sudden exclamation came across the line loud enough to make Harry recoil slightly before glancing around him to see if anyone heard the curse coming from an otherwise empty area. Zack continued unabated. "That explains why he was staring at us earlier and why he was smirking so much. Gah! I can't believe we didn't think of that ourselves. We knew that she knows who we are… Hang on Harry, I'll get back to you after we move. I doubt he's going to do anything with two Rangers so obviously watching him." The line went quiet for a moment before Zack continued. "Or at least one obviously staring at him and the other slightly less obviously watching… I'll call you back."

The line went dead again and Harry relaxed into his corner. He kept his eyes trained on the door to the Youth Center just in case, but otherwise relaxed as best he could while standing there, his thoughts wandering aimlessly in the back of his mind.

After ten minutes of waiting, his communicator chirped an incoming call again. Before he could lift his arm to respond, Zack's voice came through with a sense of urgency. "He's on the move Harry. Tommy just left the locker rooms. Must have gone in there after we moved. We're gonna try and follow him. He might lead us to Jason." The line closed before Harry could respond.

Harry had his doubts as to how effective they would be at following Tommy when he knew they were around, but since that was why they had left the Command Center anyway, he figured that it was worth a shot.

Less than a minute after Zack's report, Harry caught sight of Tommy leaving the Youth Center. A few seconds later, Zack and Kimberly made their way out, trying to stay at least partially hidden in the small crowd as they turned onto the sidewalk in front of the Youth Center and followed the Green Ranger. With a sigh, Harry pushed off the wall and moved to follow as well. He had a bad feeling that things were going to get complicated soon.

-MR-

After a relatively leisurely fifteen minute walk, Tommy led Harry and the two Rangers to Angel Grove Park. Harry was rather tense the entire time. He kept expecting Tommy to spin around and confront them before morphing and beating them into the ground. There was nothing to hide since everyone knew who everyone was so it was a credible fear to Harry's reasoning.

The unease only increased as they got deeper into the park. It was getting to be later in the afternoon so the sections of the rather enormous park that were further from the entrance were far less populated than normal. Without the public to hide identities from, Harry grew more nervous with each step.

Finally, they came to a relatively open area, the path they were walking on cut through it as it sloped up a gradual incline that vanished over the top of a hill ahead. Tommy was at least twenty yards ahead of the Rangers and Harry was another fifteen or so feet behind them still under his cloak.

The Rangers froze when Tommy stopped and glanced back over his shoulder, looking right at them. At this distance, it was impossible to really make out his face, but he just gave off a cocky aura that suggested a smirk. Before they could say or do anything further, however, the area around Tommy lit up in a flash of light that quickly faded to reveal a half dozen Putty Patrollers.

Tommy turned away and continued walking up the hill, ignoring the upcoming battle behind him with casual ease. As the putties charged in, Harry readied his wand as Kimberly and Zack exchanged a look and a few quick words before nodding. As the Pink Ranger stepped up a few paces, Zack activated his communicator. "Harry… Harry I'm not sure where you are, but we need you to keep following Tommy. Kimberly and I can handle a few putties but we need to keep track of him. I don't think he knows you're here too or there would probably be more putties… You're our best chance of keeping up with him now."

Harry nodded to himself before raising his communicator and answering. "Got it, Zack. You guys be careful."

Having gotten his answer, Zack stepped up next to Kimberly just in time to meet the onrushing putties, easily knocking the first one aside with a spinning kick before he started his normal dance-like movements. Next to him Kimberly cartwheeled into one of them, hooking her ankles and feet around its neck and then pulling it with her as she flipped back, throwing the construct to the ground. Ignoring them as best he could, Harry took advantage of his invisibility and snuck around the group before continuing down the paved path Tommy had been following just as the Green Ranger reached the crest of the hill ahead.

Grimacing, Harry picked up his pace, running as quietly as he could in hopes of catching up before Tommy got too far away. It was a lightly panting Harry that reached the top of the hill only to see Tommy standing a mere ten feet ahead, just out of sight over the hill actually, apparently talking to himself.

"… done, my Empress…" Tommy was standing in one spot, his head tilted upward as he spoke, most likely communing with Rita now that Harry considered it.

"Yes, the putties should distract those pathetic Power Rangers more than long enough." There was a rather long pause, presumably as Rita responded, then Tommy spoke again. "I am ready whenever you are, Empress."

Harry felt a buildup of magical power that he recognized from the residual energies in the alleyway. Rita was preparing another teleportation spell. Probably preparing to bring Tommy back to her side. In an act of monumental Gryffindor bravery/stupidity, depending on whom you asked, Harry moved as quickly and quietly as he could to Tommy's side before subtly grabbing ahold of the loose fabric on the back of his shirt through his cloak.

Before Harry could rethink his plan, he felt the teleportation spell take hold. The magical energies wrapped around Tommy, and Harry by extension, and whisked them away from Angel Grove Park in the blink of an eye and a flash of green light.

-MR-

Harry was expecting some kind of disorientation from this new (to him) form of magical travel, but it was surprisingly absent. The moment he and Tommy arrived, he released Tommy's shirt and stepped back from him, coming to a stop when he bumped into a stone railing of some kind. He kept his eyes forward though as that was most definitely where the threat lay.

Before him stood Tommy, impassively facing away from him as he had landed from the teleportation spell, but beyond him stood Goldar, Squatt, Baboo, and Rita Repulsa herself. The sorceress was standing next to an overly large telescope that was positioned further along the balcony from where Harry was standing. From what he could see without turning to look directly over the balcony, wherever they were it was nighttime. And a very clear night too. The sky and stars beyond were clearer than he had ever seen during his nighttime astronomy classes back at Hogwarts.

His musings were cut short when Goldar began to speak. "Welcome back, Green Ranger. I trust the Power Rangers were no great problem for you."

Tommy let out a dark laugh. "Please. Those two were fools to believe I didn't know they were following me from the beginning."

"Silence!" Rita's raspy voice called out suddenly, cutting off Tommy and Goldar. "There's something else here. Something that came along with the teleportation spell…"

Harry cursed silently. Of course Rita would have been able to tell that he had ridden along. It was her spell after all. Thinking quickly, Harry toed off his right shoe before casting a quick transfiguration and animation charm at it, suppressing the magical signature as best he could.

Rita seemed to perk up for a moment and started turning in his direction before her attention, as well as that of everyone else in the room, was caught by a small meow.

Harry had transfigured his shoe into a black cat, hoping that the color would explain why it hadn't already been spotted in the rather dark room. As they all watched, the cat moved from behind Tommy and sat, staring at the various beings in the room with the idle indifference only a feline can pull off.

Squatt was the first to react. "OH! Look your evilness! A kitty cat!"

Baboo started clapping his hands, a look of eagerness on his face. "Can we keep it? Can we?"

Goldar seemed unconvinced. "A cat? Where did it come from?"

Rita scowled, her gaze shifting from the cat/shoe to Tommy and back. "I suppose that is what got pulled along in the teleportation spell… It's not yours, is it?" She directed her last question toward Tommy who was scowling down at the animal next to him, now grooming itself without a care.

"I have no idea where it came from," Tommy growled. "It's possible it's a wild cat… Or perhaps it was once a house pet, which would explain why it tried to get close to me and got caught in your spell, my Empress."

"Yeah, yeah!" Squatt was practically vibrating with eagerness by this point. "It must be wild! Does that mean we can keep it?"

Baboo was bouncing up and down as he continued clapping. "I've always wanted my own pet cat!"

Rita turned to glare at the two before gesturing to Tommy to step aside. Once he had done so, Rita smirked at Squatt and Baboo before pointing her scepter toward the cat, inadvertently letting Harry catch sight of the Elder Wand still mounted through the circle on the end. "No." She said simply before releasing a pulse of magic that smashed into the cat. The transfigured animal let out a momentary yowl of pain before it vanished, apparently vaporized by Rita's spell with nothing left behind but a scorch mark on the floor.

Harry let himself breathe again as they seem to have bought his distraction. Though it was going to be annoying walking around this place with only one shoe. He would transfigure himself a new one but he didn't dare risk any more magic this close to Rita. She had nearly caught him already and if he pushed his luck he could only imagine what his fate would be if caught.

Squatt and Baboo had begun whining over the fate of "their kitty" almost immediately when Rita blasted it, but it didn't take long for her to walk over toward the two and whack them over the head with her scepter. "Shut up you incompetent imbeciles! There will be no pet cats in my fortress!"

"Yes your evilness!" Baboo shouted at once cradling his head as he dropped to his knees, bowing before Rita.

"Of course Empress, please forgive us!" Squatt dropped next to him and mimicked his actions.

Rita whacked them each a few more times before turning to Goldar. "Are you still taking your time with the Red Ranger, Goldar?"

Harry perked up, immediately interested in this line of conversation. Goldar chuckled darkly as he nodded. "Yes my Queen. I have greatly enjoyed toying with him, though I will admit that it grows tiresome. He is quickly losing his fire as he realizes how pointless his struggle is."

Rita's face twisted into a mockery of sorrow. "Oh, so you don't think your fun will last much longer then? How tragic…" After a moment's pause Rita burst into cackling laughter as she nearly doubled over. Goldar joined her a moment later, adding his own voice to the mix followed quickly by Squatt and Baboo. Tommy was alone amongst the visible peoples in the room in his silence though Harry was too busy ruminating on the subject of their laughter to really give it much thought.

Finally after nearly a full minute of evil laughter, Rita slowly straightened up, idly smoothing out her long robes as she did. "You may as well finish him off Goldar. He is of no further use to us and eliminating one of the Rangers and holding the Red Power Coin will only help cement our victory at this point."

Goldar knelt in front of the dark sorceress. "It will be done at once Empress."

Rita idly waved her free hand and nodded before turning to Tommy. "Go and rest now, my Evil Green Ranger. I will call upon you when the time is right for our next encounter with the other Rangers and their pet wizard."

As Harry bristled at being called anyone's "pet" anything, Tommy bowed at the waist while Goldar stood again. "It shall be as you say my Empress."

With another nod, Rita turned away from Tommy and walked past Squat and Baboo, who had now backed up against a wall, and out of the room. Once she had left, Goldar rounded on Tommy with a smug look on his simian face.

"It's really too bad, Green Ranger," Goldar spoke confidently, a hint of mocking in his voice. "Empress Rita was considering allowing you the honor of disposing of the Red Ranger yourself. That is until I had to be dispatched to save you from the mageling."

Tommy tensed up, nearly growling at Goldar as he spoke. "It was a mere miscalculation on my part. It will not happen again."

Goldar turned away from Tommy and began walking out of the room. "I should hope not. The mageling is powerful. Undoubtedly not as powerful as our mistress, but powerful all the same. One should never underestimate users of magic. The next time you face him, I expect to see his corpse lying on the ground at your feet. Otherwise, I will ensure our Empress leaves me in charge of your punishment."

Harry shifted his way around the room away from Tommy, keeping his eyes firmly on Goldar before slipping out of the room to follow him. He knew that his first priority while here in Rita's base would be finding and freeing Jason. Especially since it seemed as if they were preparing to execute him.

Following the golden armored monster from a rather short distance, Harry did what he could to match his footsteps to Goldar's. He was still unwilling to cast any magic, even something as minor as a silencing charm on his feet. Despite the fact that Rita wasn't in the same room anymore he felt it was better to be safe than sorry. He just wished that Goldar's stride wasn't so much longer than his.

Goldar unknowingly led the invisible wizard down a long, narrow hallway and around various twists and turns before suddenly stopping. Harry tensed up, idly shifting himself to the right side of the hallway and crouching down as he readied his wand only for Goldar to turn to his left and place a hand on an otherwise unmarked section of wall. Moments later, a hiss emanated from the wall and a doorway receded from the general's hand, sliding to one side easily once it moved back enough to reveal a lightless room beyond.

Harry was forced to move quickly again to catch up to Goldar as he moved through the doorway without hesitation. He was forced to move faster still when the door began closing behind him with another hiss, barely managing to keep his cloak from getting caught in the door as it sealed. Now fully in the dark, Harry cursed inwardly as he gazed through the light film of the cloak in a vain attempt to locate Goldar again, only to be nearly blinded as a bright light source lit up mere feet away.

As it turned out, the room was barely six feet deep and Goldar was standing just a few feet away from him staring eagerly at a large mirror at his eye level that was the source of the light. Moments later, the light dimmed and the image on the mirror showed a clearly agitated Jason, spotted with cuts and bruises on his face and exposed arms, pacing in a dimly lit room with fog drifting across the floor. The room was surrounded by several green colored columns interspaced with torch holders held up by a starburst pattern of golden bars anchored into the same columns. Beyond the bars Harry could see nothing but a black void with the occasional spot of light reminiscent of stars in the night sky.

"Oh, Red Ranger," Goldar spoke in a mocking voice as he observed the scene on the mirror. "Lost and trapped away from your friends without even your morpher to save you." Goldar began cackling as he reached to a small table below the mirror and picked up what Harry quickly recognized as Jason's Power Morpher. The simian brought the device up near his face, observing it in the light from the mirror as he turned it this way and that, studying it.

On the mirror, Jason suddenly started throwing a furious barrage of punches in his frustration, the movement attracting Goldar's attention. "Ah, but it looks as though he has regained some of his spirit since last we spoke," Goldar's tone now practically dripped with satisfaction. "Excellent! This means it will be that much more satisfying when I finally finish him off!"

Goldar's laughter redoubled as he reached for the table again with his free hand, this time coming away with a green orb around the size of a baseball. Extending one of his fingers from around Jason's morpher, Goldar gently tapped a spot on the top of the orb. The spot he touched began to glow before the light spread quickly to the rest of the orb. Grunting in satisfaction, Goldar placed the glowing orb into a small pouch hanging from his waist before taking a casual stance and waiting.

Harry felt the telltale buildup of another teleportation spell and moved around behind Goldar. Moving carefully, he placed the tips of the fingers on his left hand just barely onto the surface of the golden armor in the center of Goldar's back, hoping against hope that he wouldn't be noticed.

In another flash of green light, Harry and Goldar vanished from the small viewing room only to immediately appear in the room the mirror had shown, catching Jason off guard as he moved to face the simian.

"Back again Goldar?" Jason half-shouted, defiance on his face.

"Back for the last time Red Ranger," Goldar taunted. "Empress Rita has given the command for me to end your foolish existence!"

Harry moved back a few feet, idly glancing down and noticing the void in the fog around his cloak. He knew that he would be discovered quickly if he didn't make his move, but he knew from experience that Goldar had his own resistance to his magic on top of being a formidable warrior. Whatever he did, he would have to be fast and decisive. The size of the room meant he couldn't really use anything too destructive, but that didn't mean he was out of options.

"You'll find that I'm not so easy to beat Goldar, even without my morpher!" Jason was fully shouting now, his voice booming around the relatively small space they found themselves in.

"Yes, because you've been so successful against me so far," Goldar was outright laughing at him now as he once more held up Jason's morpher, mocking the Ranger with it. "And your morpher is right here too. If only you could get it."

Goldar's taunting was cut off as Jason dashed the few steps separating them and made a grab for the morpher in Goldar's hand. The monster was too fast for him though as he jerked his arm back, taking it out of Jason's reach before planting his other fist into the Red Ranger's stomach. Laughing darkly as Jason doubled over, Goldar gave his arm a heave, sending Jason backwards and to the ground as he struggled to catch his breath.

Goldar gave off a sigh of satisfaction as he stepped closer to the downed Jason and Harry moved to stay close behind him, feeling his opportunity was nearing. The monster stared menacingly down at Jason, idly placing his right foot onto his chest and pushing the Ranger back down to the floor as he struggled to rise. "It really is too bad that our time is over Red Ranger. I've enjoyed this so much I'm almost sorry to see it end! But when my Empress commands…" Goldar let out a few dark chuckles as he summoned his sword to his free hand in a flash of light and pulled it back to his shoulder, preparing to stab the downed Ranger. "I obey!"

Seeing his chance, Harry gathered himself as best he could and leapt, hooking his left arm around Goldar's neck and pulling him backwards even as he brought his wand up in his right hand and placed the tip just under Goldar's chin. The sudden extra weight threw Goldar off balance, the foot he was using to pin Jason down was moved quickly to catch himself as he stumbled backwards with his arms flailing in surprise. "Hey there Goldar. Fancy meeting you here." Harry taunted as he dangled from Goldar's neck. "By the way, _Stupefy_!"

The instability in his wand worked in Harry's favor this time as the overcharged stunning spell practically engulfed Goldar's entire head, the flash of red light nearly blinding Harry and Jason both with its intensity. Goldar simply froze for a few seconds, his body standing motionless before he collapsed bonelessly, Harry's cloak falling open and the hood falling off as they went down. The wizard unfortunately found himself with his legs trapped under Goldar's torso and heavy armor once they settled.

"Gah! Ah bloody hell…" Harry mumbled as he struggled to free himself from beneath the monster. "Hey Jason, a little help would be appreciated."

"Harry?" Jason's voice easily conveyed his surprise. "Is that really you?"

Harry rolled his eyes. "Yes, Jason. I am really here to save you. Now that that issue is out of the way would you help get this bastard off me? I can't feel my feet."

Jason quickly scrambled to his feet and hurried the few steps over to Harry's side. He stood there for a moment, examining the situation. "Alright, it looks like he's just got you pinned so maybe I can lift him up enough for you to pull yourself out."

"Whatever works, just please hurry it up!"

Jason hunched over for a moment before shifting around and crouching next to Harry, placing his hands under Goldar's armored shoulder. "Alright then, on three. One… Two… Three!" With a great heave, Jason lifted for all he was worth and yet still barely only managed a few inches against the great weight of Goldar's armor. Luckily enough, a few inches was all Harry needed to free himself, sliding quickly out from under the unconscious monster, allowing Jason to let him drop with a sigh.

Harry lie there in the rolling fog for a few moments, collecting himself. He idly rolled each of his feet at the ankle, making sure he hadn't been injured in the fall before pulling himself up to a sitting position. Jason crouched down again next to him, a blank look on his face. "Thanks for that." Harry smiled, gesturing to Goldar with his wand. "I have to say I didn't quite think that move through before I started. Oh well. It worked out well enough in the end."

Jason rolled his eyes. "Why didn't you just magic him off of you?"

Harry's smile slipped. "That reminds me. There's a better than even chance that Rita sensed the magic I just used, which is also why I didn't use any more by the way. We need to get out of here."

Jason's body tensed again as he stood. "Easier said than done… I've been trying to find a way out of here for hours. Ever since I got here. I couldn't find anything. I can't fit through any of the holes in the bars and there doesn't seem to be anything past them anyway. Not to mention that they give you a nasty shock if you touch them."

Harry glanced around briefly and then shrugged. "I may have a way to help with that, but first…" He idly reached over and plucked Jason's Power Morpher from Goldar's limp hand. "I believe this belongs to you."

Jason gave Harry a slim smile. "Thanks, man… Goldar has been taunting me with this thing since the first minute. It's good to have it back now…" Jason sent the unconscious Goldar a glare that could melt stone.

Harry just chuckled. "Feel free to take a free shot at his bollocks if you want. I don't know how much damage you'd do through his armor, but it might be therapeutic."

Jason shifted his glare to Harry for a moment only to pause as he saw Harry was now rolling Goldar over again. "What are you doing?"

Harry grunted in effort as he heaved Goldar over before reaching out and retrieving the green orb Goldar had been carrying. "He used this thing to teleport us in here. This may be our way out."

Jason nodded slowly. "But where will it take us?"

"In all likelihood, right back into the heart of Rita's fortress," was Harry's dry response.

Jason sighed. "We don't have much choice though, do we?"

Harry shook his head as he stood, studying the orb in his hands as he answered. "Not really, no."

"Alright then…" Jason shifted into a wide stance before lifting his morpher before him. "TYRANNOSAURUS!" Harry was momentarily blinded by a flash of red light before a glance showed him that Jason was suited up and ready to go with his Power Sword in hand. "If that's the way we have to do it, then let's do it right and do as much damage as possible on the way out."

Harry shot him a mischievous smile before turning the orb in his hands again, this time catching sight of a tiny rune carved into the surface. "Sounds like a plan to me, and I think I just found the on switch for this thing. You ready to do this?"

Jason nodded his helmeted head but said nothing. Just as Harry was about to tap the activation rune though, he was interrupted by a chime from Jason's communicator. "Jason! Jason do you read me?!" Billy's voice sounded frantic over the line. "Come on Jason, please respond!"

Jason glanced at Harry before switching his sword to a more relaxed grip and raising his communicator. "Jason here…"

He was cut off before he could say anything else. "Thank God you're alright! We were so surprised when the computer's registered your morph we didn't think we'd be able to connect to your communicator signal. Are you alright?"

"I'm a little beaten and bruised but Harry showed up before Goldar could finish me off."

"Harry's there?!" Zack and Kimberly could be heard giving shouts of joy in the background. "We were worried about him too since we lost track of him a few minutes after he teleported with Tommy to Rita's fortress. It's good to know he's alright as well."

"Yeah, he's here too, we were about to try and fight our way out of here. Unless you have another suggestion."

Billy paused for a moment before responding. "Just a moment. Alpha got the teleportation systems back up to full functionality just a short time ago so we might be able to just teleport you both out." There was another pause as Harry and Jason heard the telltale sounds of the computers in the Command Center beeping and buzzing as Billy worked the controls. Finally they heard a frustrated huff. "It's no good. I can lock onto Jason easily because his energy signal is enhanced by being morphed, but I can't find Harry's signature even knowing that he's there. Wherever you are right now there's too much interference to get a proper signal lock. Without that, I don't want to risk trying a tandem teleportation either."

"But you can teleport Jason out, right?" Harry interjected, causing Jason to whip his head around to stare at him.

"Yes, easily. I already have a lock on him and I'm monitoring the signal for any unexpected deterioration."

"Then do it. I can get out the same way I got in."

Harry could practically feel Jason's stare through the faceplate of his helmet. "Hold on Billy. I think I need to talk with Harry for a second."

Billy hesitated before responding. "Okay Jason, but please don't take too long. There's no telling how much of a window we'll have to get you out."

"Noted," Jason responded before lowering his arm as the channel closed. "What do you think you're doing, Harry? I'm not going to leave you here."

Harry gave Jason a steady look, drawing himself up as best he could before speaking. "Look Jason, I know you don't like me, but you need to listen to what I'm saying here. All this really comes down to is who is needed more right now. We have no Zordon, a damaged Command Center, an evil Ranger out to kill all of us, and until just now none of the others knew where you were or if you were even still alive. You didn't see them after you disappeared, Jason. They were lost without you. You're the leader of the group, the leader of the Power Rangers and that's who you need to be right now. You need to get back to the Command Center as fast as possible because without you the others' morale is shot and all upcoming battles are as good as lost."

Jason just stared at him silently for a few moments before responding. "You're right. I haven't liked you since I first met you. You're cocky, arrogant even. You aren't taking anything as seriously as you should. But even with all of that I'm not going to let you try and fight your way out of here alone. The others may need me, but you became involved in this battle the moment you fell into our laps. That makes you our responsibility. You wouldn't even be here in Rita's palace if it weren't for me being captured so I'm not going to leave you stranded here if I can help it. No matter how much the others need me."

Harry rolled his eyes. "I might come across as cocky and carefree, but that's because I've done this kind of secret war stuff before. I lived through mine and had to learn to live life as best I could just to survive with my sanity something near intact. I promise you that I know what you're going through right now. I know the pressures put upon a leading figure of one side in a war and I'm telling you right now that you can't try and take everything onto yourself. You need to trust the people on your side to do their jobs or you'll burn yourself out before you know it and then things are as good as done. Right now, you need to trust me to be able to escape here myself. I'm not going to try to fight my way out. I got in here with stealth and a bit of deception and that's how I'm going to try and leave. If that doesn't work out then I'll play it by ear, but up until that moment I have a solid plan and I'm going to stick to it."

Jason said nothing for several moments until his communicator chirped again and Billy's voice called out. "Jason, we're reading some degradation in the signal strength. There are some random fluctuations in the morphing grid and its reducing our ability to penetrate the shielding around Rita's palace. We need to get you out of there now if we're going to at all!"

The Red Ranger ignored Billy's comment and asked Harry a question. "Do you have a plan for how to get back?"

Harry nodded. "I'm going to head back to my entry point. Billy said they still had a lock on my communicator for a few minutes after I disappeared, that tells me that they only lost it once I got deeper into the fortress. When you get back, have Billy keep scanning for my signal around where he lost it and tell him to teleport me out at his first opportunity."

"If you can make it that far."

"No," Harry interjected strongly, staring straight into Jason's visor. "When. Not if. When I make it that far, you guys can pull me out. You have to trust me to do my job or nothing will work. I will get out of here and we'll meet up back at the Command Center."

Jason stared for another moment before nodding and lifting his communicator again. "Alright Billy, get me out of here."

"Affirmative, Jason. Teleporting now. And Harry, I'll be maintaining a continuous sensor sweep for your signature. Please hurry."

Before any more words could be exchanged, Jason was engulfed in a red light, forcing Harry to shade his eyes with his arm. The light seemed to flicker for a moment, a result of the fluctuations Billy mentioned in all likelihood, but eventually it lifted into the air and vanished in a streak though the ceiling and presumably back to the Command Center.

Harry let himself slump slightly. Nearly all of his speech had been made up on the spot. He was just glad that it did its job, though it was not especially surprising since he had been saying a lot of what Jason himself believed and wanted to hear. Never let it be said that Dumbledore's manipulations of his life, well-meaning they may have been, hadn't left their mark or taught their lessons. All he had to do now was put his cloak back on and try to sneak out. If worst came to worst he could just apparate away from Rita's fortress and keep making short jumps until he found a city or town where he could find out where he was and take things from there. Eventually he would have to find something, right?

With a sigh Harry straightened and pulled his cloak and hood back around himself, vanishing to the outside observer. With one last glance at the still unconscious Goldar and a self-congratulatory smirk, Harry tapped the rune on the green orb, smiling when it began to glow just as it had when Goldar used it.

-MR-

Things went pear shaped almost immediately.

The instant the glow of the orb's teleportation spell faded, Harry found himself face to face with a Putty Patroller standing in the open doorway to the small observation room he had followed Goldar into earlier. While the clay man couldn't see Harry himself, he had seen the flash of light he arrived in thanks to the teleportation orb.

This was a problem.

Thinking quickly, Harry dropped the orb and stepped forward, grabbing the oblivious putty's shoulder. Before the golem could react to Harry's touch, Harry jerked it into the room, snapping off a quick stunner from his wand once it was no longer standing in the doorway and sliding out of the room when he saw the putty collapse to the ground.

His first escape crisis averted, Harry glanced down the hallway in each direction. Seeing nothing, He set off to his right, doing his best to backtrack the path he had followed Goldar down earlier. This was a rather simple task since it was basically a straight shot back to the balcony room he had arrived in despite the various turns the hallway took. His biggest issue came in the form of stress and fear of capture. The minute or so it took him to traverse the long hallway seemed to last ten or more as his anticipation and paranoia caused time to drag.

As he neared the end of the hallway and the doorway that was his goal, Harry heard the sound of voices coming from an opening to his right. The cackling sound of Rita's voice was easily recognized, but the comparatively gentler voice he heard after was unfamiliar.

"FINSTER!" Rita shouted as Harry slowly approached the opening, checking his cloak swiftly to make sure he was still covered. "Are my Putty Patrollers ready yet?"

"Nearly, oh malevolent one," the other voice, apparently Finster, answered quickly. "I must say that I have never made so fine a batch of putties despite the large rush order you requested my queen. They shall serve their purpose admirably."

Harry leaned his head into the opening to see Rita in profile facing a shorter, light blue skinned being with an upward pointing nose and huge ears on his overly wrinkled face. Finster, for this was the only other individual in the room, was wearing a long white robe with a pale blue smock over it. He was standing before a small table with a large magnifying lens on an arm over it, smoothly using a metal tool to manipulate a clay figure on the table before him.

"Good, good…" Rita nearly cooed, the wicked smile on her face clearly visible. "Once my army of Putty Patrollers are ready we can begin our plan for the final defeat of the Power Rangers and the conquest of Earth!"

Harry felt one of his eyebrows raise almost of its own accord. Was she monologuing to herself? Finster had clearly tuned her out if his happy humming as he worked was any indication.

Harry's thoughts were interrupted by the voice of Baboo coming from behind him. "Your Evilness! Your Evilness! Oh, it's terrible!"

Harry glanced back only to see the blue being sprinting headlong down the hallway from the direction he himself had come, a look of panic on his face. Harry's eyes widened as he realized that Baboo was going to slam right into him if he didn't move, so he quickly shoved off the wall, throwing himself backward with a stumble.

Unfortunately, he quickly lost his balance, stepping on the back of his cloak and falling to the ground. The result of this was that Baboo managed to trip over Harry's legs, sending the alien creature sprawling to the floor of the doorway into Finster's workshop. Luckily enough, Baboo's screech of panic and pain easily masked Harry's slight grunt when he landed on the floor.

Rita stomped over to Baboo and glowered down at him as Harry quietly scooted himself to the wall behind him. "What is it you nincompoop? Can't you see I'm busy plotting?"

Baboo climbed back to his feet with a groan, idly glancing around the floor as he did so. "I could have sworn I tripped on something…" he mumbled. Harry felt himself pale a bit as he gripped his wand tighter. He was not in the best position to defend himself at the moment if he was discovered.

Rita growled. "Never mind that! What's the problem that had you running like an Earthling?"

Baboo stared at her for a moment before perking up. "OH! Right! Your Evilness! It's terrible!"

Rita growled again and whapped Baboo in the head with her scepter. "I heard that already you moron. Now tell me what happened!"

Harry sat frozen as Baboo bowed quickly, one hand rubbing his head. "Of course, Empress. One of the palace putty guards was found unconscious in the Dark Dimension Control Room and Goldar is unconscious in the Dark Dimension itself!"

A look of shock overtook Rita's face for a moment before her glare returned. "And the Red Ranger?"

Baboo bowed again. "Gone your malevolence."

Rita's scream of rage practically rattled the walls. "How could this have happened? What does Goldar have to say for himself?"

"We can't seem to wake him, Majesty."

Harry slowly started to ease himself to a standing position. Baboo and Rita were standing mere feet from him and if anyone else came along they would discover him as easily as Baboo nearly did.

As if summoned by the thought, Harry heard another voice. "Empress Rita, what's going on?" Tommy was jogging up the hallway, most likely having been drawn to them by Rita's scream. Harry just cursed to himself and stood fully, pressing himself against the wall and started easing himself past the gathering of villains. He felt a nervous sweat run down the back of his neck as he moved, tightly gripping his wand in one hand and holding the cloak closed with the other.

Rita rounded on the newly arrived Tommy. "Ah! My Green Ranger. You've arrived just in time. Go with Baboo and retrieve Goldar from the Dark Dimension. I will be on the observation balcony. Bring Goldar to me when you have retrieved him and I will see what should be done regarding his failure."

With a quick bow and a "Yes my queen" from Tommy and Baboo, the two figures turned and started back down the corridor while Rita turned the other direction and started walking. When she passed Harry and continued through the doorway that was his own destination he felt his chances get that much smaller.

Mustering up his Gryffindor courage and his own desire to get out of this place, Harry followed behind the sorceress as quietly as he could. He really was putting more faith than he liked in the Cloak of Invisibility. He was much more used to being able to mask other signs of his passage, but with Rita now closer than ever there was no way he was going to use active magic unless he absolutely had to. This was especially frustrating as his shoeless foot was starting to hurt.

Cautiously, Harry made his way into the room he had initially arrived in and immediately froze. The room looked much like he remembered with the overly large telescope and balcony bordering on a truly fantastic view of the starry sky. The one thing he hadn't recalled seeing was the large, mostly blue ball floating in the middle of that sky. Harry's mind went momentarily blank as he stepped toward the balcony edge and looked out over the barren grey plains of what he could only assume to be Earth's moon.

"Bugger me…" Harry whispered, wide eyed as he stared with dumbfounded fascination at the amazing view before him.

"What!" Rita snapped, easily pulling Harry's mind back to the present as he spun to face her and quickly backed away. "Who said that?" Rita loudly demanded as she slowly stepped away from her telescope where she had been standing and toward Harry's former position with her staff held in both hands and pointing forward.

Harry continued backing up as Rita advanced. His level of panic induced by the revelation that he wasn't even on Earth only grew as she stalked forward. Luckily enough, the sound of loud footsteps coming from the hallway caught Rita's attention. "Empress Rita!" Tommy near-shouted as he sprinted into the room. "Is something wrong?" Tommy was glancing around warily, searching for whatever had set off the sorceress even as a group of putties carried in the unconscious form of Goldar.

Rita quickly spun to face the newcomers. "Nothing, I just thought I heard something…" she cleared her throat before stomping her way back to her telescope and rounding on them again. "Now, bring Goldar forward so I can examine him myself."

As the putties moved to obey, Harry let himself relax a bit. It seemed his immediate issue was dealt with, but he still had no idea how he was going to get back to the Command Center. His initial plan of making short apparition jumps was pretty much thrown out at this point. No matter how magically powerful he was Harry seriously doubted his ability to apparate the distance between the moon and the Earth safely.

Rita's sudden cry of triumph followed by a pulse of magic caught Harry's attention several moments later. His attention was further drawn out of his frantic planning when he heard Goldar let out a groan. Rita must have brought him out of the stunner induced coma, which meant his presence was probably not going to remain secret for much longer.

"So Goldar, what do you have to say for yourself?" Rita's rough voice spoke in a falsely calm tone.

"Ugh… Empress?" Goldar seemed dazed as he lay on the floor, struggling to regain enough control of his limbs to climb to his feet. "What… what happened to me?"

Rita's eyes narrowed a bit, causing the putties and Tommy to take a few discrete steps back. "Where is the Red Ranger, Goldar? Why is it that you were found taking a nap in the Dark Dimension instead of destroying the Red Ranger like you were ordered to?"

Finally standing once more, Goldar placed one hand on his head as he stared blankly into space. "I… I don't know, Empress. I… I remember toying with the Red Ranger. I remember pinning him to the floor and getting ready to kill him and then… There was someone else there… THE MAGELING! Magesty, the mageling is in the palace!"

Harry cursed silently as Rita recoiled slightly at the strength in Goldar's voice before her eyes widened and she turned toward Harry's earlier location again. Without another word, Rita lifted her staff before slamming the bottom end down on the floor, letting out a pulse of magic and a burst of wind that washed over Harry violently a moment later. It was only when he noticed every eye in the room trained on him that he realized that the wind had blown the Cloak off his shoulders and the hood off his head leaving him quite visible.

"Err…" Harry's brain froze as he stood before a group of individuals who would happily eviscerate him on a moment's notice. "Hi…?"

Rita's face slowly stretched into a smile as she stepped toward him, putting herself ahead of her servants before addressing him. "So Mageling, I see you managed to infiltrate my palace."

At this point Harry was practically praying that Billy would lock onto his communicator signal soon and teleport him out, but he knew that the more time he could buy the better his chances of escape. "Wasn't too hard to tell the truth. I just hitched a ride with Tommy over there. He never even knew that I came along."

Rita shot a quick glare at Tommy who recoiled slightly before she turned back to Harry. "Perhaps, but I did know. I felt your presence in my spell. If you tell me how you managed to avoid detection for so long and how you helped the Red Ranger escape then you'll live longer."

Forcing himself to relax, Harry leaned against the balcony railing. "Oh please. You and I know that my fate isn't going to change just because I spill a few of my secrets to you. I've been through this whole dog and pony show before so you can't fool me with your pretty words and false promises."

"Is that so?" Rita hummed for a moment. "In that case I'll just have my soldiers kill you now." Almost casually, Rita waved her free hand and the five putties that had brought Goldar in charged him.

His eyes narrowing, Harry shifted back to a full standing position. Waving his wand in a long, sweeping motion as he did so, he cast a wide area banisher at the approaching putties, sending them all crashing back into the wall behind them. Rita paused for a moment before speaking again. "Your magic is so different to any I have ever seen before. Perhaps not as powerful as my own but more versatile… Why don't you join me? With you fighting for me, we can easily defeat the Power Rangers and conquer the Earth."

Harry slowly backed up until he felt a solid wall at his back. Satisfied at having prevented anyone from getting behind him, Harry spoke again. "Right, like I haven't heard that line before either. Besides that, you have three things working against you. First, I'm not exactly on the best of terms with your main general or newest enforcer there, so that wouldn't work out too well for me. Second, you stole my wand when we first met, so that's another black mark against you. And third, you're evil and I was practically raised with the sole intention of defeating another being of almost pure evil so I'm already predisposed to fight against you in the first place. Sorry, but no dice."

Rita growled before taking her staff in a two handed grip and pointing the top toward him, prompting Harry to throw up a Protego shield. Rita smirked at his action. "Very well then. If you won't tell me your secrets or join me, then you'll just die right here and now!"

With a scream of fury Rita unleashed a bolt of lightning from the red crystal on her staff that raked over the surface of his shield. Harry was vaguely reminded of his arrival in this dimension where she had done something rather similar. The differences now were that he wasn't quite as underfed and exhausted from his time in a Ministry prison and he hadn't been caught entirely off guard by a sudden and unexpected attack. As such, Harry was able to maintain his Protego shield under the onslaught wandlessly and still manage a blasting curse from his wand.

Goldar easily stepped forward and swung his sword, deflecting the spell away from Rita and out into the emptiness of space, but this also forced Rita to stop her own attack. Harry glared lightly at his opponents, keeping a specific watch on Rita, Goldar, and Tommy, but doing what he could to keep track of the now recovered putties as well.

"It seems you are not quite as helpless as you had been when we first met, Mageling." Rita taunted in her faux-calm voice once more. "However you must realize that there is no escape for you now."

Harry's response was cut off by the familiar and ever so welcome six tone beep coming from his communicator. "On the contrary, Rita" Harry said with a smirk as he brought his left arm up and activated it. "I think that now is as good a time as any for me to make my escape."

"Copy, Harry. Teleporting now."

The voice from the communicator apparently caught Rita off guard but it was nothing compared to the look on her face and the scream she let out as Harry was engulfed in a beam of white light and vanished from the balcony observatory of her palace.

-MR-

Harry landed in the Command Center and almost immediately fell to his knees. Unlike Rita's teleportation spell that had originally taken him there, his most recent teleportation had left him feeling most of the effects of the travel. While he was thankfully spared the heat and vast pressure of a true atmospheric reentry, his entire body was still left aching from the strain of the entire process.

He almost immediately felt two pairs of hands grab him, one set around each arm, and half-carry him to a somewhat familiar cot. He blinked his eyes back into focus enough to recognize Zack and Trini had been the ones to help him just as Alpha came up and started waving a device of some sort over his body.

Moments later, Alpha spoke. "You seem to be alright for the most part. Just a bit of strain on your body from such a long teleportation. The pain you are feeling should fade shortly." The robot turned to walk away before pausing halfway through and facing him again. "By the way, I hope you enjoy the bed you're in. I couldn't seem to locate our first one so I had to obtain another."

Harry felt a momentary twinge of guilt when he realized that Alpha was talking about the cot he had purloined for his own use that was sitting in his room under disillusionment and notice-me-not charms but quickly decided to apologize later. For the moment he had a more important topic to bring up.

"Could any of you tell me why nobody saw fit to tell me that Rita's palace is located on the bloody moon?!"

-MR-

Thanks for reading and reviewing,

Tenstar12


	13. Chapter 13

Magi Ranger

By: Tenstar12

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or Power Rangers.

 **Chapter 13, In Which Complications Arise**

"He was just toying with me the entire time," Jason said with a sigh. He was leaning up against one of the consoles in the Command Center as he told the tale of his capture while Harry waved his wand idly over the various cuts and bruises the Red Ranger was littered with. "Goldar would show up, taunt me for a while, throw me around, and then leave. I fought back as best I could, but without my morpher…"

"He was engaging in psychological warfare, Jason," Harry commented idly. "He was making you feel helpless in an attempt to break your spirit. Based on Rita's intention to kill you in the end and his own comments when I was following him, he was probably doing it for his own sick pleasure." Harry hummed thoughtfully before nodding. "Alright, hold still, this will probably sting a bit."

Jason gave a wary nod as Harry stepped back. With a dramatic wave and a few mumbled words, a bright flash of light emanated from Harry's wand. The wizard seemed to slump slightly even as Jason gave a short cry of shock as he jumped from his spot. "What the hell was that!?" he demanded.

Harry gave him an even look. "That was healing magic. If you'll notice, all your cuts are healed and the bruises and such are greatly faded."

Jason quickly glanced over his arms and through a few tears in his shirt before looking back up. "But why did it hurt so much?"

Harry rolled his eyes with a shrug while a few of the other Rangers snickered. "Healing magic probably isn't this wand's forte. Its unstable nature would actually do quite a bit to ensure that. Anyway, quit being such a baby."

Jason shot Harry a quick glare before turning away, prompting yet another eye roll from Harry followed by a yawn. "Well," he started, "unless anyone else needs me for something, I think I need to get some sleep. It's been a long, long day.

Trini blinked at Harry for a moment before turning to Alpha. "What time is it anyway?" She had a note of unease in her voice.

The robot glanced up from the console he was working on, making the final repairs needed to get the Command Center back in working order. "The current time is 9:46 PM."

Harry could almost see the color drain from Trini's face. "Oh man," she said with a hint of panic in her voice. "My parents are gonna kill me!"

Kimberly was equally pale. "Yeah, you're not kidding!"

Zack, looking equally uncomfortable, glanced between the two girls before meeting Jason's gaze. "I guess we're going back to Angel Grove then?"

Billy and Jason nodded before the Blue Ranger spoke. "That would seem to be the situation."

Zack nodded before turning to Harry. "Do you need a lift too Harry? We're gonna have to take the Rad Bug back to Billy's place and I get the feeling the girls will be teleporting back so there'll be room for you."

"No thanks, Zack. I'll just apparate myself back. Thanks for the offer though. I'll see you all tomorrow, I'm sure." With a nod to the others and various goodnights, Harry twisted in place and apparated the short distance into his room, keeping the pop as quiet as possible to avoid detection when he appeared behind his closed door. Without another thought, he turned and collapsed onto his cot in the corner without even removing the spells keeping the cot hidden. He had drastically underestimated how tired he was as sleep took him almost immediately.

-MR-

Harry awoke somewhat late on Wednesday morning feeling quite refreshed despite sleeping in his day clothes and with the Cloak of Invisibility apparently having been used as a blanket during the night.

With a stretch and a yawn, he ate a quick breakfast, idly noticing that he needed to go shopping at some point as his personal supply of largely non-perishable breakfast type foods was dwindling, before heading out to the main room of the Command Center.

Harry quickly found himself the center of attention as the five Power Rangers all turned toward him in their suits with their helmets held under an arm. The few slight scorch marks on a few of them led Harry to believe that they had just returned from a battle. "Err…" Harry started. "So… what did I miss?"

"Where were you?" Jason demanded, his eyes narrowing slightly. "We got called to a battle earlier and we couldn't get ahold of you. We even looked in your little workshop there, but you weren't here. How did you get in there without us noticing you anyway?"

Harry raised an eyebrow as he thought quickly. They probably hadn't seen him because of the Notice-Me-Not charms on the cot he was sleeping on and he wouldn't have woken up from the communicator if he was sleeping deeply enough. With a shrug, Harry spoke. "My guess is that I was sleeping when you tried to call me and the communicator didn't wake me up. I used a lot of magic in a relatively short amount of time yesterday between battling the Green Ranger, rescuing you and escaping Rita's Palace with all that entailed, and then healing you back here. My body had to make up for it. As for how I got in there, it's a familiar place that _shouldn't_ have anyone else in there, so I used it as a safe apparition point. Believe me, you don't want to know what could happen if I popped into a space someone else was standing in. It's not really a pretty picture…"

Harry noticed with a certain amount of satisfaction that the heat in Jason's eyes had died down with his explanation and slight deflection so he turned his attention to the rest of the group. Billy, Trini, and Zack looked rather tired, but Kimberly looked angry. With her hair looking mussed up from sleep Harry's best guess was that she had been pulled out of bed herself to fight against whatever creature Rita sent against them. "So, can I assume things went well?"

Jason nodded solemnly. "Well enough, yeah. It was some chick named Scorpina. Alpha said she is another of Rita's old generals, like Goldar. When we got there, she called in some Putties but teleported out before we really got into the fight. It was weird…"

Zack picked up as soon as Jason trailed off. "Yeah, I mean, why would Rita send her down if she was just gonna leave right away? It doesn't make any sense at all."

Trini suddenly got a thoughtful look on her face. "What if this is all part of Rita's plan? The last few battles have been rather short, almost abortive. The Green Ranger left after Harry showed up, though that could have been because he was getting beaten so handily." She shot Harry a quick smile before continuing. "Then when she had Jason captured and he attacked it happened again. They didn't really push too much even after Goldar arrived."

Billy stepped up. "And now we have Scorpina who really didn't even try to fight us for long. It's almost as if she's trying to get us paranoid or something…"

Kimberly, who had been running her free hand through her hair with a frown on her face looked up. "You think she could be holding back. Trying to wear us out with all the running around because she's got something bigger planned?"

Jason nodded slowly as his mind caught up with the others. "It's definitely possible…"

Harry just watched, satisfied to let the Rangers' harmless paranoia run its course. He knew that sometimes there was no conspiracy and things just happened the way they happened just because that's how the cards fell. Trini's thought on Harry's first battle with his wand were probably right. He had had Green on the ropes and Rita barely pulled him out before he got blasted. Then, in their next encounter, Zack's timely calling of his Dinozord was probably what drove Goldar and Tommy away, though it was likely based on what he had overheard in Rita's palace that Goldar was only there to save Tommy from Harry in the first place. And to address the most recent battle, it was entirely possible that there was something else behind Scorpina's sudden retreat that they weren't privy to.

Harry's was snapped out of his thoughts when he noticed Trini looking toward him oddly, her eyes trailing over his figure with a concerned look. It only took him a moment to realize that he was still wearing his sleep ruffled clothes so he waved his hand over his front, magically cleaning himself and straightening his clothes. He almost chuckled at the slight ruffle he felt when the spell tried and failed to straighten his hair. Some things were beyond even the ability of magic to fix.

Harry shot a shy smile at Trini who blushed when she realized he had noticed her staring before he walked over to Alpha. "Good morning, Alpha. How are things going on the repair front?"

The robot turned to regard Harry for a moment before responding. "Good morning to you as well, Harry. Though I feel good afternoon is more appropriate as it is currently 12:34 PM. The repairs on the control consoles were largely finished yesterday by Billy and Trini and I completed the last of it during the night. I am just finishing up some final diagnostics now."

Harry glanced over his shoulder at a bright flash of light as the Rangers demorphed back to their civilian clothes before turning back to the robot. "So once these diagnostics are done, are you going to start searching for Zordon again?"

Harry noticed footsteps as the Rangers moved closer to better overhead their conversation as Alpha continued. "Yes. With the primary generator back online and full functionality restored to the controls, I calculate a much higher chance of success at locating Zordon once more."

"Well, that's good news at least," Zack said with a frown, apparently still worried by their collective conspiracy theory.

Kimberly shifted back and forth on her feet, clearly uncomfortable as she ran one hand through her tangled hair again while using her other to maneuver a compact mirror to try and see if she was making any progress on it.. "So, is there really any reason for us to stick around here still? I mean, if there's not an attack or anything…"

Jason paused in thought for a bit before grunting. "We should probably stay here for now. With Scorpina in the picture now on top of Goldar and the Green Ranger and with how busy Rita has been lately we can't let our guard down."

"Besides," Billy piped up, "it would be rather erroneous for you to arrive at home or elsewhere when we're all supposed to be in class right now."

Kimberly seemed to slump for a moment. "Right… I forgot about that…"

Seeing the normally perky girl bummed out as she continued to try and fix her hair with the tiny mirror, Harry took a step toward her and held out his hand. "May I see your mirror, Kimberly?"

The Pink Ranger shot Harry a strange look. "Uh… Sure… I guess…"

Harry took the small mirror and glanced over it for a second before casting a quick enlargement charm before levitating the now two-foot mirror to float in front of Kimberly. With another thoughtful hum, Harry whipped out his wand and conjured a simple hairbrush before handing it to her. "The brush and the charms on the mirror will only last for around an hour, so try and be done before then, yeah?"

Kimberly stared at him with wide eyed amazement before her face lit up with a bright smile. "And because you're a life saver, I won't even hold that dig against you. Thanks so much, Harry."

"Cheers." Harry responded with a wave before turning back to watch Alpha work. The still seemingly randomly pressed buttons may have been boring, but Harry would have felt like too much of a creep if he had watched Kimberly fix her appearance and there was really nothing else to do in the Command Center at present.

-MR-

Kimberly managed to fix her hair in half her available time, leaving Trini to take over the floating mirror to do some maintenance of her own. Then Zack took a quick peak at his appearance, but all he ended up doing was winking at his own reflection, drawing a quiet chuckle from those who saw, before returning to a quiet conversation with Jason and Billy.

Other than that, nothing really happened for an hour after Harry woke.

Alpha was largely silent unless asked a question, though he got rather irritated at constant requests for updates on his progress after the first few times. The diagnostics were finished rather quickly and everyone was eager to re-establish contact with Zordon.

Harry was idly reflecting on how much waiting in the Command Center he had done of late when the alarms started going off.

"Ai yai yai!" Alpha immediately started panicking. "Rangers, look at the Viewing Globe!"

Harry and the others turned almost as one as the Globe lit up showing the tall buildings of downtown Angel Grove. It was a rather unremarkable picture until the giant form of Goldar stomped into view and started firing off blasts of energy from his eyes into the structures and streets around him.

"Well," Harry commented. "That's certainly not good."

"It's Goldar!" Jason near shouted, his anger from his treatment during captivity showing as he glared at the image.

"Man, he's going off the deep end." Zack's voice was thick with apprehension as they watched Goldar making his assault on the city, gouts of fire now sprouting from the highest windows of several buildings.

"We have to stop him." Trini spoke next, saying what they were all thinking.

All except Billy. "It could be a trap though." The Blue Ranger was looking thoughtful as he watched the image. Harry rolled his eyes at the paranoia Billy was showing. He was about to comment when Jason beat him to it.

Jason nodded with a sigh. "It could be, but do we really have a choice? He's wrecking the city and it's our job to stop him." Harry relaxed again as the teens firmed their resolve. Once more, Jason had proven why he had been made the leader of their team.

With a glance at the others, Jason shifted to a wider stance and reached for his morpher. "You ready guys? It's Morphin' Time!"

As one, the teen lifted their morphers and prepared to call on their powers but were completely unprepared for the shower of sparks that emitted from each of the devices. The lights in the Command Center flickered briefly as the teens each let out cries of shock, Kimberly even dropping her morpher in the process.

Harry jerked in surprise. He had been ready for a blinding flash of light followed by spandex body suits, but this was unexpected.

"What's going on?" Kimberly asked, nervous now.

"Alpha," Billy was the first to turn to the robot for an explanation. "What happened? Why couldn't we morph?"

Harry and the others watched as Alpha started pressing the buttons before him even more frantically than before. "I'm getting a reading…" he started before trailing off and pressing more buttons.

After several more seconds with no further comments, Jason spoke up. "Well? What is it?"

Alpha didn't respond for another few seconds before he jerked upright and away from the console. "Ai yai yai! This doesn't make any sense! There's some kind of energy anomaly interfering with the Command Center's connection to the Morphing Grid! As long as it's there, you can't morph!"

There was a collective cry of "WHAT!" from the assembled teens. Even Harry got in on it. Harry knew that he was the only one who wasn't currently dependent on the Morphing Grid for power, but even he wouldn't jump at facing off against a giant monster, much less Goldar, on his own. Without being able to morph, there was nothing any of them could do.

Billy moved on first, his scientific mind working frantically. "But what could have caused the anomaly?"

"Could it be Rita?" Trini asked, making everyone go wide eyed. If the Sorceress had found a way to block their morphing on top of everything else going on the war was all but lost.

Alpha quickly put those thoughts to rest though. "No, it's not Rita. Her powers are based in the Morphing Grid as well and… well, suffice to say that she couldn't cut us off without doing the same to herself, which would mean a normal sized Goldar… It… It is possible that it was caused by the energy beam I'm using to try and locate Zordon. I had to channel it through the periphery of the Morphing Grid to gain access to the dimensional gap where he should be and that could theoretically create such an anomaly."

"So there's nothing you can do?" Jason nearly demanded, desperation in his voice. "We can't morph or… anything?"

"No, I'm sorry," Alpha responded, still frantically working the controls. "I am cutting power to the energy beam now, but all we can do is wait for the anomaly to fade. It could be even more hazardous if I try to do anything to speed up the process."

"How hazardous are we talking here?" Zack asked. "Because we have a rather hazardous situation going on in Angel Grove right now as it is."

Alpha paused in his frantic work and turned to Zack. "If we were to accidentally destabilize the energy anomaly it could cause a massive energy surge that would bleed over through the Morphing Grid and into this dimension. The resulting pulse could quite easily wipe out all life in this quadrant of the galaxy!"

The silence that followed was absolute as the Rangers exchanged panicked glances. Zack squeaked his response several seconds later. "Right…" he cleared his throat awkwardly before continuing. "So how long will we have to wait?"

Alpha turned back to the computer. "I really can't say for sure. It is possible that it could break down in a few minutes, but it could take longer. Maybe even several days longer."

"DAYS!" Jason shouted in horror!"

"But," Alpha continued on as if he hadn't even registered Jason's interruption. "Based on the readings from this particular anomaly I would estimate that it should be gone in slightly less than one hour."

"So I guess we have to wait then?" Trini said, idly hugging herself as she did.

Jason just stomped back over to the viewing globe and stared at the image playing there. With a sigh, Harry exchanged glances with the others before joining him. Before long, the six teens were watching with morbid attentiveness as Goldar continued blasting the various buildings in downtown Angel Grove, helpless to intervene.

-MR-

Forty-five minutes later, Harry was getting confused. The Rangers had stopped watching the Viewing Globe rather quickly, probably finding themselves unwilling or unable to keep watching their home town being destroyed as it was. They had all wandered off: Billy watching Alpha work, Kimberly and Trini talking quietly off to one side, and Jason and Zack behind one of the console sections doing some slow sparring to pass the time.

Harry was still watching the Viewing Globe. Something about what he was seeing wasn't meshing well for him. Finally, it hit him. "Guys!" he shouted, immediately drawing the Rangers' attention. "Come check this out!"

The teens moved quickly to gather around him as he gestured to the Globe. "Are you all seeing what I'm seeing here?"

There was silence for a few seconds before Kimberly answered him. "All I'm seeing is Goldar still destroying Angel Grove…"

"Exactly!" Harry said, snapping his fingers as he did. "He's _still_ destroying Angel Grove. I'm assuming that this is a live view of everything, right?" At Billy's nod he continued. "So how is it that he hasn't leveled the whole city by now? In fact, I don't think I've seen him knock down more than one building so far. He keeps using those eye lasers of his and the worst those have done is set a few fires that burned themselves out pretty quickly."

"Hey…" Zack seemed to be catching on. "You're right, that is all he's doing! We all know that Goldar is more than powerful enough to have trashed everything and left by now."

"And look at that building he just blasted," Trini piped up. "All it did was leave a few scorch marks and let off a bunch of sparks. It's kinda hard to tell with the distant view we have, but it doesn't look like more than superficial damage."

"Do you think he could be exhausting himself?" Billy asked, once more in a thinking pose as he watched.

Jason shook his head. "No, Harry has a point. If he had worn himself out by now he still would have destroyed a few more buildings at the start of his attack."

"You know, I have to admit that I had my doubts when you guys suggested the idea earlier, but I get the feeling that this attack is the beginning of a set up." Harry said with a grim smile.

"You mean it's a trap?" Kimberly asked, looking confused before nodding as she watched Goldar almost _carefully_ step around a building before launching another laser attack that didn't do much. "I get it! They were hoping that we would rush out there right away so they could ambush us or something."

Harry's smile turned to an equally grim chuckle. "I bet Rita's pretty steamed right now since none of us took the time to attend her party."

Jason, it seemed, failed to find any humor in the situation. "The only thing this means is that Goldar didn't destroy Angel Grove even while we were unable to stop him. As soon as we can morph again, we're still going to have to go out there and put a stop to this."

Harry's smile faltered for a moment, but he soldiered on. "I agree completely, Jason. But at least this way we will have a bit of surprise on our side instead of the other way around."

"So we could ambush the ambushers you think?" Kimberly asked, hope creeping back into her voice.

Trini was the first to answer. "Probably not, Kim. We don't necessarily know that there is an ambush in the first place. And even if there is one, we don't really know where it would be coming from. Jason is right, this just means that Goldar has been holding back."

"But it does suggest that Rita is pushing for a specific reaction from us." Billy said thoughtfully. "It's clear that she is trying to draw us out if nothing else."

Their discussion was interrupted by a series of beeps from the computer followed by Alpha's voice. "Rangers! The anomaly has vanished. You should be able to morph now! Hurry!"

"You heard him Rangers, let's do this!" Jason shifted his stance again as Harry stepped away. "It's Morphin' Time!"

"Again…" Harry mumbled with a small smile as the Rangers lifted their morphers once more.

"MASTODON!" "PTERODACTYL!" "TRICERATOPS!" "SABER-TOOTH TIGER!" "TYRANNOSAURUS!"

When the light appeared as expected, Harry whipped out his wand and conjured a plain black cloak and hood before summoning the Cloak of Invisibility from his room. He slipped the Cloak over his shoulders before covering it and himself in the plain one. The end result was rather warm, but Harry didn't feel that invisibility would work very well for him from the start this time. Fighting invisible was an issue if your allies didn't know where you were so it was better to save it for times when you were on your own so as to avoid friendly fire. All the same, the familiar silky presence of the Cloak brought him a measure of peace even as he prepared to once more charge into battle.

Turning back to the Rangers, Harry gave them a small smile and a nod. "Ready when you are, guys."

Jason nodded. "Alright, Rangers, let's do this. Alpha, you keep looking for Zordon while we take care of Goldar."

Zack jumped in with a comment of his own. "And please try to avoid creating any more energy whatsits while you do."

"I will. Good luck, Rangers. Teleporting now!"

The other four gave various affirmatives as Alpha teleported the six out of the Command Center and into the heart of Downtown Angel Grove.

-MR-

The first thing Harry noticed when the light of teleportation faded to reveal a harbor was the lack of people. This was, of course, expected since there had been a giant armored monkey monster terrorizing the city for nearly an hour now.

The second thing he noticed was the apparent lack of the aforementioned giant armored monkey monster. There weren't even any telltale sounds of explosions or shaking of the ground as he moved.

"OK, where the heck is Goldar?" Kimberly asked.

"I don't know," Jason responded, turning this way and that as he searched. "He's gotta be around here somewhere…"

Jason led the group as the six jogged down the pier they had teleported onto and toward the city proper. Their current location was on the bay Angel Grove had been built around. It was a mere two or three blocks from the outermost edge of what one could call "downtown Angel Grove" and probably near the minimum safe distance Alpha could have teleported them to. But even from this distance, none of them could catch sight of Goldar. There was, however, a moderate haze of smoke coming from amongst the buildings that told them they were at least in the right area.

Their search was cut of rather quickly as they rounded the corner of a warehouse only to skid to a stop when they caught sight of a large group of putties, accompanied by Squat and Baboo, standing near a slender woman who was glaring at the newly arrived Rangers and Harry. She was wearing a skin tight outfit that left her right arm bare while her left arm, left leg, and both feet were covered in heavy golden armor along with what looked like an armored bikini top. She was wearing a golden helmet with a spike coming down the right side of her face, framing her surprisingly attractive visage.

Harry couldn't help but voice this last thought. "Damn… She's actually kinda hot… You know, for one of Rita's servants…"

Harry could almost feel the looks he was getting from the Rangers. He could especially recognize those coming from Kimberly and Trini as their glares raked across his skin, somehow feeling hotter than the others.

Harry just shifted uneasily before brandishing his wand. "Alright, shutting up now…"

The woman just laughed as the Rangers drew their blade blasters. "Greetings, Power Geeks!"

"You're not going to get away from us this time, Scorpina!" Jason shouted, giving Harry the Asian looking woman's name. And also, Power Geeks? Harry shook his head ruefully. If there was one thing to be said about this dimension over his original it was that the banter and insults were probably a bit less pathetic back home.

The pre-battle banter, such as it was, continued on despite Harry's lack of attention. "Oh, I think you'll find this encounter to be much different than our last, Red Ranger. You may have kept us waiting longer than we thought, but the result will be the same nonetheless." With a wicked screech of laughter, Scorpina reached behind her back and pulled out a long, curved, boomerang-like blade before pointing it toward Harry and the Rangers. "Putty Patrollers, ATTACK!"

And so the battle was joined.

-MR-

Thanks for reading and don't forget to review,

Tenstar12


	14. Chapter 14

Magi Ranger

By: Tenstar12

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or Power Rangers.

 **Chapter 14, In Which Rita Plots and Magics Clash**

As the Rangers and putties charged each other and began their battle, Harry and Scorpina stood behind, staring across at one another. Harry himself was staying back because he knew there wasn't much he could do against the putties up close. His initial plan was to say back and take a few pot shots at targets of opportunity, but with Scorpina staying out of the melee as she was that wasn't really an option.

Just as he finished his thought, he saw a quick flash of movement as Scorpina brought her armored feet together before leaping into the air, her crescent blade extended before her as she flew toward the stunned wizard. At the last moment, Harry whipped his wand up. " _Reducto!_ " The curse rocketed from his wand and slammed into the chest of the surprised Scorpina, sending off a shower of sparks and negating her momentum.

Flailing slightly, she fell from the air and landed harshly on her back a mere ten feet away from Harry, between him and the Rangers' battle with the putties. Snapping off a quick _Incarcerous_ and wrapping the downed woman up in the conjured ropes, Harry backed up slowly with his wand still trained on her struggling form.

"So, Mageling." Scorpina practically purred from her position on the ground. "I see Goldar was right about you. You do indeed have a rather strange and powerful brand of magic at your disposal. So different from Empress Rita's, yet formidable in its own right."

Harry raised an eyebrow. "Thanks… I guess…"

"Yes, quite formidable magic, but it doesn't help if the magic user is as stupid as you are." As Scorpina spoke, she shifted her arms slightly, bringing the razor's edge of her weapon into contact with the ropes around her and slicing them cleanly.

Cursing himself for his inattentiveness, Harry whipped his wand up and began firing curses at Scorpina again, but she demonstrated a level of speed that Harry had yet to face from one of Rita's minions as she almost casually flipped to her feet and away from his spells.

Harry paused in his spellcasting and watched the warrior woman. Scorpina was standing a short distance from Harry, 15 feet or so, and still between him and the Rangers' battle with the horde of putties. A battle that the Rangers were slowly winning as far as he could see.

Shifting into a dueling stance again, Harry spoke, deciding to try a new tactic. "You would do well not to underestimate me, Scorpina."

The armored woman gave off a superior. "Well I certainly haven't seen much to be impressed with and I am one of Empress Rita's most powerful generals."

Harry's eyes narrowed. "Goldar probably thinks the same thing, but he hasn't been able to beat me yet either." He flicked his wand slightly, deciding to go with an old standby and transfigured and animated several arms from the concrete they were standing on. The woman seemed rather surprised for a moment before swinging her blade down once more, severing one of the arms like a hot knife through butter, only for one on her other side to grab her ankle and yank her off her feet.

Scorpina's weapon slid along the ground away from her as another arm ripped it away before restraining her along with the others, leaving Rita's general lying on the ground unable to escape. "You know," Harry commented as he slowly walked toward Scorpina, staying as alert as he could for any more tricks or sudden escapes like her last one. "I probably shouldn't complain about winning most of the fights I've gotten into since arriving here, but I'm really getting sick of you people underestimating me all the time."

The woman glared up at him from her position on her back, anger clearly surpassing any other emotion in her eyes, but she remained silent. After a few seconds without a response of any kind, Harry shrugged and lifted his wand again. "It's clear that you are a skilled fighter though. Perhaps a bit more speed and acrobatically inclined than Goldar as he was able to power his way out of similar restraints in the past. If you had taken me seriously then this probably wouldn't have happened. Oh, well. _Reduc-_ "

"MAGELING!"

Harry's attempt at finishing off the restrained Scorpina was cut off by Goldar's shout. The already giant sized monster's voice making his head ring even as he and the Rangers looked up in time to see the armored simian stomping over, one arm reaching toward Harry and Scorpina.

With only moments to spare, Harry vanished with a sharp crack, reappearing next to the regrouped Rangers who had just defeated the last of the putty patrol and were staring up at Goldar as he ripped up the chunk of concrete where Scorpina was trapped. With a grunt of effort, Goldar broke the main body of the concrete to pieces, freeing Scorpina who then leapt up onto his shoulder.

With a glance from the corner of his eye, Goldar spoke in a surprisingly calm tone for the perpetually enraged sounding creature. "SCORPINA, RETURN TO EMPRESS RITA'S SIDE. I SHALL DEAL WITH THE POWER RANGERS AND THE MAGELING."

Scorpina said nothing, though she did send one last scathing glare toward Harry before vanishing in a flash of yellow light.

His passenger now gone, Goldar summoned his sword to his hand. "Now Rangers, let's settle this once and for all!" With a powerful thrust, Goldar stabbed his weapon toward his comparatively tiny opponents. Harry quickly apparated away again, but the Rangers were unable to fully escape the resulting eruption of concrete as the surface easily ruptured under the force.

Protected by their suits, the Rangers were able to regroup quickly and Harry appeared by their sides again with a crack in time to hear Billy speak. "Jason, I suggest we try a new tactic."

"Right!" Jason responded, clenching his fist dramatically before him.

Harry just stared at them blankly. "I have an idea… How about you CALL YOUR ZORDS AND FIGHT HIM THAT WAY!?"

The Rangers froze, looking toward Harry as if they were confused before Jason nodded. "Alright guys, let's do it!" The five shifted their stances as one, feet shoulder width apart, their left hands tucked down by their waists and their right arms extended into the air with their hands spread out. "We need Dinozord Po-!"

Jason's triumphant shout, and consequently the summoning of their Zords, was cut off as Goldar attacked them again, his foot coming down right next to them as the Rangers and Harry dove out of the way. Harry rose slowly, feeling somewhat battered after the shockwave from Goldar's stomp threw him an extra dozen feet and scraped him up a bit. Once again, the Ranger's suits protected them enough to allow them to recover faster and they regrouped around Harry while Billy helped him up.

"It's no good man," Zack spoke up. "Every time we try to call the Zords, Goldar is just gonna hit us again.

"Well we have to do something!" Jason near-shouted again. Harry had certainly noticed that the Red Ranger seemed to talk much louder while he was morphed than normally, though he hadn't yet figured out if it was another consequence of the Morphing Grid or just a quirk of the Ranger himself.

Their sort-of planning was cut short as Goldar once more stomped in their general vicinity. Once they had regrouped in a location out of his sight, the Rangers' suits looking a bit scorched from the latest close call, Kimberly spoke first. "We can't keep this up much longer before he flattens us!"

"I don't suppose it would do much good to hit him with your blade blasters, would it?" Harry mused. "Or maybe the Power Blaster?"

Billy took a thoughtful pose for a moment. "The blade blasters probably wouldn't be very effective, but the Power Blaster has potential."

Zack was quick to add his own input. "Yeah, but I bet that the moment we try to form it Goldar will attack again just like when we tried to call the Zords."

Harry cursed internally at the ridiculous amount of time that the Rangers had to take to call out any of their bigger guns. Stupid Morphing Grid and its stupid limitations and requirements.

"What if we split up?" Trini suggested after another moment. "If we move around more then he won't be able to keep all of us from summoning our Zords and once we get a few of them out it will be easier to distract him long enough for the others to get called."

Jason was the detractor this time. "It's no good. Goldar is too powerful for any one of our Zords to hold him back for long. And if he's able to take one of them out of the fight on its own we'd be in even deeper trouble."

Then Harry had an idea. "What if I apparate to the top of one of the buildings and start cursing him from there. I know a few spells that should be able to distract him enough for him to lose track of you guys long enough to call your Zords."

The Rangers exchanged a few quick glances before Jason nodded. "Alright, if you think it'll work then give it a shot."

"But be careful, Harry," Trini insisted. "If things get bad up there don't hesitate to fall back. We can figure something else out."

Harry nodded to her in acknowledgement. "Not a problem, Trini. If worst comes to worst I'll just pop over to another building. He can't track my apparition so that should work. Just make sure you get your Zords as quickly as you can. My magic probably won't be able to do much more than annoy him at that size."

The Rangers nodded to him as one and Harry twisted in place, vanishing with a pop and reappearing on top of the building they had been hiding behind. With a quick glance around, Harry caught sight of Goldar stomping a few blocks away with his head down, apparently searching for the Rangers as he caused more random destruction around him. With another nod to himself, Harry apparated again to a building ahead of Goldar and aimed carefully before letting off a conjuntivitus curse that splashed over one side of the giant simian's face.

Goldar reared his head back and slapped his free hand over his left eye as he shouted his rage and pain to the world. With a small smile, Harry took aim once more, hoping to catch Goldar's other eye this time. His casting was interrupted, however, when a bolt of fire exploded next to him, sending him sprawling to the ground.

"So, little wizard, we meet again."

Harry whipped his head up to catch sight of Rita Repulsa floating a short distance away from him on some kind of flying bicycle, her staff clenched in her right hand and pointed toward him as she pedaled.

He climbed to his feet, checking himself over as he stood to make sure his robes hadn't caught fire, and glared at her. "So it would seem."

The silence between the two grew for several moments as they glared across the relatively short distance between them. Finally, Harry spoke again. "You know, you still have something of mine."

Rita's face twisted into something resembling a smile. "Oh, you mean your old focus? Well I don't really see how you need it any more since you have another, and I have grown quite attached to it. It is quite the powerful artifact after all."

Harry rolled his eyes. "Yes, I'm quite aware. Oddly enough, that's part of the reason I want it back. I'm not quite sure what kind of wand-lore you have around here, but where I'm from the wand chooses the wizard and that wand chose me. I'm sure you noticed that it doesn't quite work well for you."

Rita's smile only grew. "Oh, so the wand is sentient is it? That would certainly explain some of the troubles I had with it initially, though none of those have applied since I fused it with my scepter. Now it only serves to amplify my own power. A power you cannot possibly hope to stand against."

Without another word, Rita thrust her scepter forward, the red orb lighting up before the energy seemed to flow into the mounted Elder Wand, arcing to the tip before a burst of magical lightning flew out toward Harry, forcing him to dive to the side to avoid it. Scrambling back to his feet, Harry spun around and fired off a quick reducto, but with her flying bicycle Rita was easily able to drift to one side and avoid it.

Taking a moment, Harry summoned a silver shield with his wand before once more anchoring it to his offhand just in time to use it to intercept another ball of fire. Their magical exchange continued for several minutes with Harry mostly dodging Rita's spells while occasionally using his shield to block or deflect them and Rita almost casually flying out of the way of any of Harry's own attacks.

Finally, both of them panting slightly, though Harry was convinced that most of Rita's lack of breath was from her near-constant cackling laughter, Rita spoke again. "Just face it, you cannot possibly hope to defeat me! I am Rita Repulsa, the Empress of Evil, and you are nothing but a little pet wizard that the Power Rangers took pity on."

Harry growled under his breath. "You know, I am really getting sick of none of you people ever using my name! It's always, 'Mageling' or 'Little Wizard' or 'Pet Wizard.' Is it too much to ask for a little recognition around here?"

Rita's wicked smile grew again. "When you finally manage to do something to prove you are a threat to me I may decide to learn your name, but that sadly won't be possible." With another loud screeching cackle, Rita jabbed her staff forward and released a pulse of magic. It was only then that Harry realized that his feet were stuck, engulfed in concrete from the roof that Rita must have animated while he was having his rant.

Now Harry was stuck, literally and figuratively. In a desperate attempt at survival, Harry ducked down and hid as much of himself as he could behind the shield mere moments before Rita's spell hit its mark. It only lasted a moment, but Harry would have sworn it was longer as his shield almost immediately buckled and then gave way, the spell breaking down before the sheer force Rita hit it with, causing the shield to dissolve. On the plus side, when the shield gave way, there was enough force left to knock him free of his entrapment. On the down side, Harry himself was more than a bit scorched from that same excess spell power.

Rita floated slightly closer as Harry slowly pulled himself upright, clenching his wand tightly as he did so. "Just give in now, Wizard, and I might make your end painless."

Harry refused to respond, merely leveling his best glare at her as he tried to catch his breath.

Rita gave a satisfied smile once more. "Very well then, Mageling." Once again, the dark sorceress began channeling her magic into her scepter in preparation for a magical lightning blast. Harry recognized the spell as it was one of her more frequently used attacks, next to her fireball spells. It was one thing that he had noticed about Rita's brand of magic: it destroyed things very, very well. Her brand of magic felt decidedly dark in nature, even on the monster fragments as he had once mentioned to the Rangers, but it was almost uniquely spun to destruction and death.

Putting his musings aside, he thrust his wand forward just as Rita unleashed her magical lightning, casting a point-shield between them barely large enough to block the bolt from hitting him. Rita, seeing Harry's last resistance, merely cackled again and renewed her assault.

Harry felt himself faltering almost immediately. Rita's power was indeed far greater than any he had faced before as far as pure strength went. But if he really thought about it, the magics of this dimension were very different from anything he had ever experienced before so there was no telling how she would have matched up to the likes of Voldemort in a head to head contest. If Harry still had the Elder Wand, or even his old Holly and Phoenix feather, he felt he would have been able to fight her on a much more even level, but with the unstable hodgepodge wand he had he knew he was outmatched.

Even now Harry could feel his wand shuddering under the strain of the magic he was pouring through it to feed his shield. The wand simply wasn't suited to much other than offensive magics if he were honest, and even then it was an inefficient focus at best of times with its unstable nature.

As his wand continued to shudder in his grip, Harry found himself having to focus further and further on his magic to keep the flow as smooth as possible so the wand's instability wouldn't kick in and knock his shield out. It was as he sank deeper and deeper into the magical flow, his awareness of all else dwindling, that he felt the spark of the familiar within Rita's attack where it was raking along the surface of his shield.

He had already identified his own brand of magical energies as a sort of residual trace left behind in the monster pieces he had collected, but it wasn't till this moment that he really realized what it could mean for him. Rita had stolen the Elder Wand, a wand that he was the once and forever master of. A wand that could not typically do anything to hurt its true master. The most likely reason for Rita's spells working on him so far was because of the minimal amounts of Elder Wand magic in each of her spells.

Harry came out of his light trance with a gleam of determination even as his reduced focus made his shield falter slightly. The traces of the Elder Wand's magics were incredibly faint within Rita's, but now that he knew what to look for they were as clear as day to his senses. With an almost carefree smile that would remind those in the know of James Potter or Sirius Black in one of their more Gryffindorish moments, Harry let his shield drop before thrusting the point of his wand once more and meeting the arc of Rita's lightning with it.

In an instant, Harry flooded his wand with as much of his magical energies as it could hold and linked it to the traces of wand-magic at the core of Rita's attack. The connection caught immediately and held strong so that when Harry jerked his wand to the side, the lightning bolt followed it, trailing after Harry's wand and being diverted around the wizard to impact behind him with a small explosion.

Rita almost immediately stopped casting, her face now showing shock for the first time in the fight.

Harry just smiled as his chest heaved with every heavy breath he took, reveling in the fury that overcame Rita as she stared.

Finally, with a screech, Rita once more started casting at Harry, leading off with another of her lightning spells and following up with a pair of fireballs. Harry straightened as she began casting, once more catching her first spell with his wand and redirecting it to one side before almost casually doing the same to the first fireball. The second he caught on his wand, interfaced with the magic in its core briefly, and made a small pirouette, sure he looked rather stupid as he did it, before releasing the fireball to fly right back toward Rita.

The look on her face was rather priceless in Harry's opinion. The Sorceress was so stunned by Harry's sudden counterattack, and with her own spell at that, that she failed to move her bike in time to dodge. The resulting explosion was enough to knock Rita off her flying bicycle, sending both her and it falling to the rooftop a dozen feet in front of Harry.

"How…" Rita demanded as she quickly pulled herself to her feet, relying heavily on her scepter to do so. "How did you deflect my spells like that!?"

Harry smiled as he straightened himself again, a faux-casual air about him. "You know it's rather nice of you to join me here on a solid surface. I'll admit it was rather demeaning to be dueling you while you were merrily pedaling away in the air like that."

"Don't ignore me, Mageling!" Rita screeched, releasing another bolt of magic which Harry almost casually redirected.

"Oh believe me, Rita," Harry spoke, ice creeping into his voice now. "I'm not. _Reducto_!"

Now it was Rita's turn to shield as Harry let loose with a barrage of offensive curses and hexes. Mixing reductos in with the occasional exploding curse, cutting curse, or knockback jinx. The sorceress stood strong throughout the onslaught with no clear sign of tiring, eventually forcing Harry to slow down himself lest he exhaust his magic and leave himself vulnerable.

"It seems we are at an impasse, Mageling." Rita spoke smoothly, a false smile once more on her face. "You cannot break through my magical defenses and I cannot seem to hit you with any of my spells anymore either."

Harry narrowed his eyes before nodding. "That would seem to be a fair statement, doesn't mean that I'm willing to sit here and play nice with you though."

Rita's smile just grew even wider. "Oh, I wouldn't expect that from a goody-goody like you in the first place, Mageling." At this point, Harry was sure she was just calling him that out of spite and because she knew it annoyed him. "But I have another advantage over you, I think."

Harry took a cautious half step back out of reflex only to inwardly curse himself when Rita's face began to look eager. "Oh? And what's that?"

In response, Rita lifted her left hand up, heavily bedecked with over-sized rings that were glowing with an internal light. "I have more than one focus and can hold up my shield with one while I attack you with the other!"

Rita immediately put actions to her words as she thrust her scepter forward and unleashed another bolt of lightning. Harry, relying on his earlier success, spun with the spell again, sending it crashing back into Rita's shield where it seemed to ground itself out and fizzle away without doing any damage.

"And now you are once more without options…" Rita's false sympathy sickened him, but Harry had to admit that she had a point. There was nothing more he could do to her with his current resources. Any Transfigurations he tried would probably just get blasted by her if she didn't blast him before he could complete them. Most of his other spells weren't nearly powerful enough to get past that shield of hers if his earlier barrage was anything to go by, and even her own redirected spells seemed mostly ineffective.

Then Harry got another idea. This one based off his last duel with someone else using the Elder Wand. It was a long shot, but if it paid off it would be worth it. If not, well he probably wouldn't be allowed to teleport away this time…

Rita, ignorant of Harry's thoughts, spoke once more. "It's too bad, really. If you had just decided to join me you wouldn't be facing your own destruction now."

Harry gave her a long suffering look. "Has anyone in the history of existence ever gone for those corny lines? It's bad enough that I have to deal with the Rangers saying stuff like that on occasion, but you too? Honestly!"

The sorceress's face twisted back into anger, making Harry rethink the idea of being cheeky at a time like this. "So be it." With yet another screech which seemed to be almost a calling card for her offensive spells Rita let loose with another lightning blast.

Using reflexes honed throughout his years of Quidditch training and fighting against Voldemort and his Death Eaters, Harry snapped his wand up and pointed it at Rita. " _Expelliarmus_!"

The two spells met each other with a bright flash of light, temporarily blinding the two magic users. When their eyesight returned Harry was pleased to see his gamble had paid off. Their two foci, Harry's wand and the tip of the Elder Wand protruding from the top of Rita's staff, were connected by their two spells fighting against each other between them.

"What is this?!" Rita demanded, leaning forward slightly behind her scepter even as Harry felt the pressure on his own spell increase.

The wizard just smirked and redoubled his own efforts, reaching out to the Elder Wand's magic within Rita's attack and tweaking it slightly as he did. Harry's efforts began showing fruit immediately as Rita's spell began losing power, slowly shifting the junction between their spell-lock stalemate closer to the dark sorceress.

As her spell continued to fail despite her efforts, Harry could see the panic on Rita's face grow as she placed her free hand on her scepter, consequently dropping her shield as she did so. Finally, she snapped at him. "How are you doing all this?! It isn't possible for you to be this powerful!"

Harry took a physical step forward, his proximity adding to the force behind his spell. High on his seemingly inevitable triumph, Harry spoke. "You made this possible through your actions, Rita. I told you before, the wand chooses the wizard, and that wand chose me!" With one last push, Harry's spell broke through Rita's and slammed into her, knocking the sorceress to the ground and wrenching her scepter from her hands.

With an almost casual motion, Harry swapped his wand to his off-hand and caught the scepter easily. He took a moment to examine the Elder Wand, trying to find some way to remove it, but his attention was quickly drawn to Rita's shout. "GOLDAR!"

The echoes of Rita's most likely magically enhanced shout had barely faded when the building shook violently and Goldar's giant head rose into sight, his left eye still squinting slightly from the effects of Harry's earlier spell. "YOU SUMMONED ME MY QUEEN?"

Harry was paralyzed in shock at the monster's proximity and so was unable to react even as Rita spoke. "Recover my scepter and remove this annoyance!"

"AS YOU COMMAND, EMPRESS!" Goldar's eyes lit up as he spoke and Harry instinctively cast a protego, not immediately noticing that he had channeled through Rita's scepter as he did so. The Elder Wand enhanced shield was really all that saved his life as Goldar's optic blasts destroyed the roof of the building below him and sent the wizard flying backward and off the edge of the building, losing his grip on the scepter as it clipped the building just before he went over.

Harry had always enjoyed flying and the freedom of being up in the air, but he found that getting into the air by being suddenly blasted off the top of a building wasn't quite as appealing. Before he could fully descend into panic though, his fall was cut short when he felt a hard impact and a pair of arms wrapped around him in midair. Moments later, Harry once again found himself on solid ground, Trini's helmet close to his face as she lightly shook one of his shoulders. "Harry… Harry, are you alright?"

Harry glanced around, wide eyed to see the other Rangers all standing nearby, their suits considerably more scorched than when last he saw them, and shooting glances at him between cautious sweeps of their surroundings. Finally turning back to Trini, Harry nodded once and placed one of his hands over hers still on his shoulder. "Yeah… yeah, I think I'm alright. Hey, you know how I once complained about you guys saving me at the last second all the time? Yeah, never again…" Harry let himself collapse as he felt the adrenaline drain from his system.

Harry heard Zack give out a light chuckle. "Good to see you're still with us man. What happened up there?"

Harry took a few deep breaths before pulling himself to a sitting position as best he could, having to rely on Trini's help in the end when a few muscles protested his sudden movement. "Rita showed up just after I cursed Goldar the first time. We dueled. I disarmed her. Then Goldar showed up again and blasted me."

"You fought Rita?" Kimberly exclaimed, shock coloring her voice. "And managed to disarm her?"

"Did you manage to reacquire your original focus?" Billy asked, his voice sounding eager.

Harry glanced around for a moment before shaking his head. "I'm pretty sure I lost the scepter when I got blasted off the building." He turned to Trini, feeling a bit of Marauder mischief coming on due to the euphoria from his adrenaline rush. "And as soon as we are out of danger I am going to hug the heck out of you for catching me by the way." He followed it up with a bright smile that didn't falter even as Trini jerked slightly before freezing.

"Don- Don't mention it…" Trini nearly squeaked. Harry chuckled inwardly. He swore he could almost feel the heat of her blush even from within her helmet.

"We don't have time to mess around, guys." Jason interrupted the moment, redirecting everyone's attention to him. "We need to stop Goldar from destroying the city!"

"Yeah," Harry interjected. "Why haven't you guys called the Zords yet? What went wrong?"

Jason looked down and clenched his fist in frustration. "Goldar just wouldn't let up. No matter where we went, any time we tried to call the Zords or form the Power Blaster, he was right on top of us and we had to scatter. It's like he knew where we were the entire time!"

Harry gave a thoughtful hum. "Well, since he's not on top of us right now, I would have to assume that he was somehow sensing the buildup of Morphing Grid energy that gets let off each time you guys try to do something big like that. And that begs the question that if he could find you so easily, why hasn't he done much of anything to you yet?"

"Hey now, it's not like we got away unscathed each time, you know?" Zack commented, indignantly.

"I'm not saying that you did," Harry retorted calmly as he stood, once again with Trini's help. "What I am saying is that your earlier trap theory that I initially doubted and then agreed with is becoming more and more likely in my mind. Some of the stories you've told me about Rita from before I got here and some of what I've experienced since have lead me to believe that she is one for sometimes drawn out and occasionally nonsensical plans, and this situation really feels like a delay tactic for a big set up to attempt to defeat you guys in a big way."

While the Rangers pondered his comments, Harry took a few moments to do what he could about the minor burns and scrapes he had from his short battle with Rita. A few healing spells later, and an internal agreement with Jason's statement from the previous day about his healing magic stinging a LOT more than it probably should, Harry felt well enough to continue as needed. His magical reserves were still sitting above half and his body didn't hurt too badly now that he had dealt with his most prominent injuries. What little soreness and fatigue he had accumulated so far was manageable as long as nobody expected him to run a marathon any time soon.

"I guess we'll just have to stay on guard as best we can, Rangers." Jason finally spoke up again. "The situation hasn't changed. We still need to protect the city, so let's get to it!"

"RIGHT!" The other four chorused while Harry merely rolled his eyes internally. That was Jason, ever the team leader/font of inspiration.

Their team-moment was interrupted by the familiar cackling of Rita Repulsa as she swooped down from behind Harry and pivoted to face them from atop her flying bicycle once more and with her scepter in hand. Harry was happy to note, however, that the bike looked a bit worse for wear after he had managed to blast it earlier.

"So," Rita simpered in her falsely kind tone once more. She seemed to have already put her defeat at Harry's hands, temporary though it had been, behind her. "Are you stupid Power Geeks ready to give up?"

Jason, ever the eloquent speaker, shouted their response. "NEVER!"

"Jason, you… are a fool…" Rita drawled, her smile not leaving her face.

The Red Ranger paused for only a second before firing back. "You're the fool if you think we'll surrender to you!"

At this point Harry was musing internally on the unfairness of Rita calling Jason by name and so nearly missed Goldar's surprise attack, which was surprising all on its own with the monster's size. "SILENCE!" the giant simian shouted before thrusting his sword at them. It was once again easily dodged by Harry and the Ranger, however, only building Harry's paranoia as they regrouped.

"You can't win Rita!" Jason's shout was promptly ignored as Rita merely started laughing again.

"And now it's time to complete my evil plan!" the cycling sorceress looked especially gleeful as she turned to her oversized minion. "Goldar! Do it!"

Harry and the Rangers watched dumbfounded as Goldar nodded to Rita before stepping back and looking around himself for a moment. Finally, with an exclamation, the armored giant reached around behind a building and came up with a bus in hand. As he stomped closer once more, Harry and the Rangers caught sight of a few figures running back and forth within the bus with their arms flailing about.

"NO!" Jason cried out, one hand stretched out dramatically. "There are civilians in there!"

Goldar merely sneered as he examined the bus closely. "YES, I KNOW!" He seemed to squint a bit before letting out a booming laugh. "ACTUALLY THEY'RE FRIENDS OF YOURS. I BELIEVE YOU CALL THEM BULK AND SKULL!"

"Ah bollocks…" Harry mumbled before glancing up at where Rita was still floating, her attention on Goldar as he continued to turn the bus in his oversized hands. Snapping his wand up, Harry tried to take advantage of the Sorceress's lack of focus. " _Bombarda_!"

Harry's sudden exclamation and the flash of light from his spell caught everyone's attention as his attack raced toward Rita only to slam into a shield several feet from her and explode harmlessly.

Rita turned back toward Harry and the Rangers with a pitying expression. "As if it would be that easy, Mageling. Now, Goldar! Take them to the beach!"

Goldar nodded as he turned away. "AS YOU WISH, EMPRESS RITA!"

Jason and the other Rangers almost immediately began running after him. "Come on guys, we've gotta save them!"

Harry sighed before glancing back up and seeing Rita had vanished again. With an internal groan Harry started jogging after the Rangers, seriously missing his Firebolt about now. Still, even as he ran he couldn't help but feel they were playing right into Rita's hands. In fact, she had straight up admitted to having an "Evil Plan," so it would follow that this was all a part of it.

Harry again reflected on the Gryffindors charge ahead mentality that he had developed over his lifetime. It really did put him in some difficult situations and getting mixed in with a bunch of Gryffindor like heroes didn't help. But Jason had a point. They really didn't have a choice, especially with civilian innocents involved. Even if they were Bulk and Skull.

And Harry got the feeling that that was exactly what Rita was shooting for. The trap was prepared and the bait identified. Now it was time to see what happened when they set it off.

-MR-

Thanks for reading and don't forget to review,

Tenstar12


	15. Chapter 15

Magi Ranger

By: Tenstar12

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or Power Rangers.

 **Chapter 15, In Which the Trap is Sprung and Things Get That Much Worse…**

It didn't take more than a few blocks for the Rangers and Harry to completely lose sight of Goldar. His giant size made him more easily visible but also much faster as it came with a stride that the regular sized Rangers just couldn't match. They were eventually forced to contact Alpha, who reported a small amount of progress in his search for Zordon, so they could teleport to the shoreline that was Goldar's most likely destination based on the direction he had been heading. The location was a few miles north of Angel Grove proper and was the first location along that particular stretch of coast that could really be called a "beach."

They quickly realized that they had teleported to the right place when they heard the familiar cackle of Rita Repulsa sound out from the top of a nearby cliff with Scorpina standing next to her. "Ah, Rangers and the Mageling! What took you so long?"

Harry rolled his eyes at Rita's theatrics. "Anybody see the bus?"

Kimberly was the first to respond, pointing down the beach frantically. "Look over there!" Harry's gaze traveled along the edge of the cliff in the direction Kimberly had indicated. He immediately noticed the cliff's height increasing the further down he looked as the beach beneath it dwindled to nothing until he got to the bus's location, around a hundred yards from where they were currently standing. The bus was precariously close to the edge of the cliff and rocking ever so slightly as he watched. Beneath it was nothing more than a straight drop onto jagged rocks with waves crashing over them.

"Oh man!" Zack shouted next. "It could go over any second."

"We've gotta save them!" Jason predictably shouted.

Harry chose that moment to cut across the Rangers' panicked shouting. "OK, we know where the bus is, but does anybody see Goldar?"

The Rangers paused before glancing around again. "How in the heck do you hide a one hundred foot golden monkey so well?" Zack joked after a few moments.

"Alright, so I'll go after the bus then while you guys take this chance to call the Megazord." Harry commented easily before checking to make sure his hood was up and secure. It wouldn't do for Bulk and Skull to recognize him if they managed a glance outside the bus's windows.

"Call the Megazord?" Jason seemed confused.

Harry, still feeling uneasy about the entire situation, rounded on Jason with a look of exasperation. "Yes, call the Megazord. You know, that big robot that you guys use to fight the giant monsters? The one you've been trying to call since we left the Command Center? The one Goldar was keeping you from calling? That Megazord. Call it and I'll deal with the bus and saving Bulk and Skull."

"But we can't." Jason's voice gained confidence as he spoke. "We can't escalate a battle, I know Zack and the others told you about that. Besides, we don't need Megazord to save the bus."

Harry just gave Jason a blank stare, forgetting for a moment that the obscuring charm was as effective as the Rangers' helmets at hiding his face and expressions. "Yes, they did and you're right, Megazord isn't necessarily needed for that. I am more than capable of taking care of the bus with my magic, but just because we changed locations doesn't mean that the situation has changed. Giant Goldar is still around here somewhere and you guys need to call the Zords so that you can hold him off if he decides to take an interest in me while I try to save the idiots trapped in the bus on the cliff!"

Jason seemed about to say something further, but Billy rested a hand on his shoulder, effectively cutting him off. The Red Ranger spun to see the other four staring at him. "Jason," Billy said slowly. "Harry has a point."

He glanced at each of the other Rangers momentarily before letting out a harsh breath of air. "Alright, we'll go with your idea." Harry could clearly tell that Jason's attitude toward him was quickly reverting back to its original state. Apparently, saving someone's life around here left an impact that quickly faded after a single night's sleep.

Their planning was once more interrupted by Rita's laughter. "If you are all done having your little discussion down there…" Rita turned toward the bus and waved her free hand airily. "Send it over!"

"HARRY! GO!" Jason bellowed before turning back to the others. "Alright, guys. Let's do it!"

Harry rolled his eyes as he twisted in place and vanished with a soft pop while the Rangers' call echoed across the area. "WE NEED DINOZORD POWER, NOW!"

Reappearing at the top of the cliff, Harry took a moment to examine the situation. He was standing on the opposite side of the bus from where Rita and Scorpina were still staring down at the Rangers on the beach. The bus itself, a mere thirty or so feet from him, was surrounded by a dozen Putties. Though that number was a guess based on the six he could see on his side, he had no idea how many were on the other side just now as all he could see of them were several pairs of randomly shuffling feet and the occasional head seen through the bus windows. The putties were the reason the bus was rocking as they bounced around it, slamming into it at random intervals with their customary sound filling the air.

From inside the bus, Harry heard the screams of panic and fright, one much higher pitched than the other, that could only be coming from Bulk and Skull. Unless there was a six year old girl in there too and one of the two bullies had passed out…

Behind the bus stood Squat and Baboo. The monsters were each grasping a long log with one end tucked under the bus. They were grunting and straining as they lifted the logs up, slowly but surely forcing the bus closer and closer to the edge.

Harry took all this in in a few seconds before taking a deep breath to center himself and whipping his wand up.

His first spell was a cutting charm. The flash of light caused by his spell caught the attention of the two monsters and gave them enough time, if only barely, to scramble back out of the way as it flew through the space they had previously occupied. It did serve the purpose of slicing the two logs in half though, effectively making them useless for their previous purpose.

"AH!" Squatt squealed in a pig-like fashion. "It's the Mageling!"

"Oh no!" Baboo started waving his hands frantically over his head as he panicked, the image nearly making Harry laugh from the sheer level of ridiculousness. "Putty Patrol, hold him off while we push this bus over the edge!"

Harry narrowed his eyes as the putties on his side of the bus twisted suddenly, catching sight of him before charging him in their unique, tumbling style. Momentarily cursing himself for not apparating in under the Cloak of Invisibility, Harry met the creatures' charge with the wave banisher that had worked so well on them in the past.

The magical wall of force slammed into the first wave of putties and slammed them back into the side of the bus, consequently renewing the screams coming from within. The second wave though, a group of seven that came from the far side of the bus, managed to avoid it by simple premise of having leapt over the bus and so over the spell.

With skillfully executed rolls and tumbles, the airborne putties hit the ground and came up charging, forcing Harry to backpedal even as he began flicking his wand this way and that, each movement releasing a spell to encumber or force back the encroaching horde. Any spell that he could use to take any of them out of the fight permanently would take too long to cast, leaving him vulnerable to the rest of the group. Not to mention that if the nimble soldiers managed to dodge one of his more destructive spells it would more than likely hit the bus behind them.

This was one of the biggest reasons he hated fighting putties.

With a grunt of frustration, Harry twisted again, apparating himself behind the full group of putties before turning quickly and jabbing his wand toward them. " _Bombarda Maxima!_ " Harry's exploding charm rocketed forward and crashed into the back of the rear-most putty. The group of clay constructs were taken off guard by the sudden attack, having lost track of Harry when he apparated, and were completely obscured by the dust and smoke created by the following explosion.

Harry braced himself as the ground shook slightly as a result of the explosion he had caused, only to quickly glance up and look around when the shaking didn't stop after a few moments. His fears were realized when Goldar's memorable face appeared over the edge of the cliff before rising up higher and higher, finally topping around twenty feet over his head as the monster glared down at him, a certain vicious eagerness in his eyes.

"WELL, WELL… IF IT ISN'T A LITTLE MAGELING FOR ME TO PLAY WITH!" Goldar threw back his head and laughed while Harry could only look on, wide-eyed.

"I THINK IT'S TIME TO PUT AN END TO OUR LITTLE GAMES, MAGELING!" the giant simian taunted as he reached with one of his colossal hands to grab onto the still paralyzed Harry. "I WILL MAKE YOU PAY FOR WHAT YOU DID TO SCORPIN-AHHH!"

The monster was interrupted by the giant metal fist of the Megazord being planted into the side of his head. Harry was forced to duck slightly and turn away to protect himself from the massive shower of sparks only to fall to the ground when Goldar caused a minor earthquake when he crashed into the comparatively shallow water at the base of the cliff.

Harry felt an extreme amount of gratitude when he heard Jason's voice from his communicator. "We'll keep him occupied, Harry, you just focus on saving Bulk and Skull."

"Yeah, no problem…" Harry idly gasped as he forced himself to his feet once more, still a bit weak in the knees from his near brush with death.

Once he had regained his feet, not an easy task with the two titanic combatants stomping around nearby and constantly shaking the ground as a result, Harry turned once more to the putties just in time to see two of them struggle to their feet from amongst the pieces of their former comrades. Harry only took long enough to mentally note that one of them was missing an arm and the stump looked rather similar to a shattered stone sculpture before sending two piercing hexes right into the construct's foreheads, causing them to once more collapse to the ground.

With a sigh, Harry turned to face the bus once more just in time to see Squat and Baboo, through the use of full body charges and a great deal of pushing, manage to get the front axle over the edge of the cliff. He could see Bulk and Skull clinging to each other within the buss, sitting right next to the doors at the front in fact, with their faces pale in fear as they screamed. Why they hadn't just opened the door and run out before the front of the bus went over the edge he didn't know, but for now Harry turned his attention to Rita's minions.

"Alright boys," Harry said loudly, his wand trained on Squat and Baboo as they froze in place. "Step away from the bus and I promise I won't hurt you too bad."

The pair of misfit monsters exchanged a glance before Baboo spoke. "We have to follow Rita's orders, Squat. You keep pushing, I'll hold him off."

The blue monster merely nodded before backing off a few feet and charging once more, slamming into the bus and budging it forward another few inches. Harry idly considered hitting the bus with a sticking charm before Baboo stepped forward to square off with him.

"You sure you want to do this?" Harry asked, keeping his wand trained on his opponent. "You don't really think you can stand up against me when I've beaten down Goldar, Scorpina, and Rita already do you?"

Baboo didn't respond, choosing instead to reach behind himself and pull out a long, thin, rapier-like sword and brandish it in a mocking salute. "I will not let you interfere in Empress Rita's plans anymore!"

With that declaration, the dark furred being charged at Harry only to trip over his own feet after a few steps, falling flat to the ground and losing his grip on his weapon. Harry idly watched as the sword spun away across the ground before flicking his eyes back toward Baboo. The monster leapt to his feet again in a heartbeat. "That's fine, I didn't need that sword to defeat you anyway." He brought his right hand up to this face, holding it with his fingers spread wide so he could still keep track of Harry through the gaps as his eyes started glowing faintly. "Take this!" With a flourish, Baboo flung his arm back down away from his face and the light in his eyes lanced forward in a destructive beam of energy.

A destructive beam of energy that stretched out for about two feet before sputtering out, the entire attack fading away shortly after.

"What the…" Baboo had a look of utter confusion on his face as he glanced back and forth between Harry and his own hand several times before bringing his hand up once more and repeating the entire process. "Take THIS!"

This time, the beam faded away after a few inches, leaving Baboo even more befuddled and Harry fighting to hold back his own laughter.

Then he heard a loud crunch followed by a triumphant cry from Squat as the bus began sliding over the edge of the cliff, pulled by its own weight and momentum from the monster's last shove. Harry snapped back to reality with a curse as he realized he had allowed himself to be distracted from his actual goal. With an almost negligent wave of his wand, Baboo, still looking confused as to why his attacks hadn't worked, was banished back into Squat, the two monsters falling to the ground in a pile of flailing limbs.

Quickly facing the bus, Harry jabbed his wand forward. " _Arresto Momentum_!" While the two monsters struggled to stand again, invariably knocking each other back to the ground in the process, Harry watched as the bus slowed its movement before finally stopping just as the rear tires slipped over the edge.

Sweating slightly, Harry gave his wand a quick swish and flick. " _Wingardium Leviosa_." The bus jerked in place slightly when Harry's first spell gave out in place of his levitation spell, but it still followed his wand's movement up into the air and back over solid ground while Squat and Baboo just watched in wide eyed astonishment.

Straining only slightly, Harry lowered the bus back down close to the ground before cutting his spell and letting it fall the last few feet, if only to hear Bulk and Skull's reaction. With a slight smile at their startled screams, Harry turned back to Squat and Baboo who were now staring at him with fear in their eyes.

Harry just smirked. "Boo!" And the two monsters were up like a shot and running for all they were worth. Harry almost casually waved his wand and they fell to the ground once more before being bundled up in conjured ropes, tying the two together with enough rope that they wouldn't even be able to so much as twitch a finger.

Taking a moment to gather himself after nearly failing his part of the mission, Harry made his way over to the doors to the bus, idly eyeing Bulk and Skull as they stared at him through the glass doors. He just stood there for a second, seeing the petrified looks on their faces, and realized that with his long black cloak and shadowed face, he probably cut something of an intimidating figure to the two. Add that on top of them having been kidnapped by one of Rita's monsters and it wasn't too surprising that they hadn't made any move to leave the bus yet due to their overwhelming cowardice.

Rolling his eyes, Harry waved his wand and the bus doors opened, causing the two bullies to squeak in fright once more. After a moment of thought, Harry cast a charm to mask his voice, just in case, and stepped to one side, gesturing with his free arm for them to leave the bus. "Whenever you gentlemen are ready. The coast is about as clear as it's going to get right now."

This seemed to spark the two into action as they quickly stood and brushed themselves off in as casual a manner as they could before making their way down the short steps and out of the bus. Once they got out, Bulk turned to face him as Harry waved his wand again, closing the bus doors. "So… Who are you anyway?"

Harry once again wished that someone could see his face past the obscuring charm on his hood. It just wasn't the same when people couldn't read your facial expressions to get the full impact of your comment. "I'm a friend of the Power Rangers. They asked me to step in while they took care of the big guy."

"Big guy?" Bulk asked dumbly before his eyes widened as the ground shook once more. Harry took a quick glance up to see that this time it was caused by the Megazord landing hard, apparently having taken a strong blow from Goldar's sword if the slightly smoking weapon in the monster's hand was any indication.

"Oh…" Bulk squeaked, slowly turning away from the battle and toward the disguised Harry. "That big guy…"

Harry rolled his eyes again. "Yeah, that big guy." He turned slightly before pointing down the coast in the direction of the city. "Angel Grove is that way. You guys may want to get going before things get even more dangerous."

Bulk and Skull exchanged a panicked look before the bigger bully drew himself up. "Yeah, well, we -ah- need to get going anyway. Have lots of things to take care of… and stuff…"

Skull, nodding stupidly next to him, finally found his own voice. "Yeah, things and stuff…"

After exchanging another look, Bulk turned and started walking back toward Angel Grove. "So… bye." Skull followed him without a word, matching Bulk's almost casual pace as they tried to save face for whatever reason they felt was important. It only took the earth shaking once more from the giant battle nearby though before they changed that seemingly casual walk into a dead sprint. Bulk was moving surprisingly fast for a person of his weight and Harry couldn't help but be impressed at how little time it took before they were out of his sight and, hopefully, out of immediate danger.

With another sigh, Harry removed the vocal charm on himself and activated his communicator. "Guys, its Harry. Bulk and Skull are safe. I sent them back toward Angel Grove and I have Squat and Baboo restrained here. How are things on your end?"

As Harry watched, Goldar and the Megazord exchanged a few blows, Goldar using his sword and the Megazord almost easily avoiding most of them to get close enough to land several punches. Moments later, Jason's voice echoed from his communicator. "Surprisingly well, actually. I'm really starting to agree with your trap idea now, Harry." And Harry could just tell that it bugged the Red Ranger to admit that. "This is just way too easy."

Harry then heard a loud cackle from Rita before he felt an enormous burst of magic in the area around them. "Ah… I think Rita just cast some kind of spell. I could literally feel it washing over me."

"What do you think it was?" Kimberly asked.

Harry glanced around, taking special notice that the distant figures of Rita and Scorpina were still standing in their original position, apparently having been watching the battle the entire time. It was only then that he noticed that it seemed to be getting darker. "Is it just me or is it getting dark all of a sudden."

It was Billy who confirmed his suspicion. "Affirmative. A solar eclipse has started."

"That must be what Rita's spell did," Harry spoke slowly, confusion apparent in his voice. "But why would she use so much magic on something like that?"

"Most likely because she somehow knows that the Megazord is solar powered." Billy answered quickly even as Goldar landed another blow on the Megazord. Once the Ranger stabilized themselves again, Billy continued. "We're already down to seventy-five percent power. The Megazord's reaction speeds are slowing."

"Damn it!" Jason shouted. "She must be trying to take out the Megazord!"

Harry's next comment was cut off as Rita's voice once more echoed across the area. "Scorpina! Go!" Harry turned in time to see one of the small figures, he assumed Scorpina, leap from the cliff and land on the beach where Harry and the Rangers had arrived. "Now let's see her GROW!"

The distant form of Rita flung her scepter down to the beach where it landed next to Scorpina, the gem flashing brightly even as the earth split open to release a gout of steam that engulfed the woman/monster as Rita's unique growth spell took effect.

The monster that emerged was nothing like what Harry had expected.

Based on his previous experience with Rita's monsters, Harry was just expecting a larger form of the surprisingly human looking Scorpina. What he got when the steam dispersed was a far more monstrous creature. She had a large, wicked looking pincer in place of her left hand and her entire body was covered in dark brown and red plates that resembled an insect's exoskeleton. Her head had turned red as well and grew a muzzle like protrusion full of deadly looking teeth with two hooked horns that came from each side of her head and ended down near the bottom of her jaw. From the back of her head, there were several long spines jutting out around a longer, thicker one that hung down and ended in a wicked scorpion-like stinger. The only real item that linked Scorpina's previous form with her current one, other than the obvious scorpion motif, was the boomerang-like sword that she still carried.

"Damn… she sure isn't hot anymore…" Harry mumbled before shaking himself and lifting his communicator once more. "Guys, heads up. Scorpina has just had a growth spurt and is heading your way."

"Got it Harry," came the quick reply, this time from Zack, before the channel closed again as the two monsters converged on Megazord.

The fight that followed was painful for Harry to watch. Mostly because he knew there was little to nothing he could do to help.

Megazord, piloted by the Rangers, did the best it could, warding off most of the blows that came its way with deft movements that greatly resembled Jason during the various spars that Harry had seen him in. But as the moon moved further and further over the sun, its movements started becoming more and more sluggish. Finally, with the sun fully hidden behind the darkness of the moon, the now monstrous Scorpina and a laughing Goldar moved as one, Scorpina leading in with a flurry of strikes with her weapon and Goldar following up with a flying dropkick that smashed into the Megazord's chest plate and knocked it to the ground.

After waiting for a few moments for the robot to rise again, Goldar and Scorpina began laughing wildly at their apparent victory. Harry activated his communicator again. "What's going on in there guys!"

"Our solar power cells are almost completely drained!" Trini's frantic voice announced. "We can't get back up!"

Harry recoiled slightly. How inefficient was that thing if it went down from lack of power in less than two minutes if the sun wasn't shining? Shaking himself, Harry glanced down at his wand and considered his options. Firming up his resolve, Harry looked back at the giants before him, the Megazord was twitching ineffectually as it rested on its back in what was probably twenty or thirty foot deep water with its upper torso slightly propped up on some submerged rocks while Goldar and Scorpina laughed and taunted the helpless Rangers.

He may have had his differences with Jason, but the rest of the Rangers were his friends and there was no way Harry James Potter was going to leave his friends out to dry if there was absolutely anything he could to do save them.

It just wouldn't fit in with his image and "Saving People Thing."

Smiling ruefully, Harry twisted and vanished with a pop only to reappear on the chest of the Megazord. Glancing down with a smile, Harry recognized the moment that the Rangers, housed in their control room beneath him, realized where he was.

His communicator activated almost immediately. "Harry!" Kimberly's voice rang out this time. "What are you doing?!"

He just smiled at them. "Stepping in to try and give you guys a breather. And you might want to look away for a moment."

Without paying them any more mind, Harry lowered his communicator and lifted his wand. Goldar and Scorpina didn't seem to have noticed his presence just yet, but he was going to change that. Taking his own advice and closing his eyes as he looked away, Harry called out his first spell. " _Lumos Solem_!"

He realized that his play at getting the giants' attention worked immediately as they let out twin roars of pain as the bright light emitting from his wand scorched their eyes. It was Goldar who first identified him as Harry let his spell fade. "MAGELING! YOU THINK TO STAND AGAINST US EVEN NOW! WE HAVE DEFEATED THE POWER RANGERS. MY EMPRESS'S PLAN WORKED FLAWLESSLY AND THERE IS NOTHING THAT CAN BE DONE TO STOP US NOW!"

Harry pointed his wand at himself this time. " _Sonorous_. I'M AFRAID I JUST DON'T WORK THAT WAY, GOLDAR." He said, his voice echoing just as loud as the giant's, clearly shocking both monster's as it did. "IT'S LIKE I TOLD RITA BACK ON THE MOON: I'M KIND OF PREDISPOSED TO FIGHT EVIL LIKE YOU GUYS. AND HONESTLY, GIVING UP ISN'T IN MY NATURE EITHER."

Goldar and Scorpina exchanged a glance before the simian sent a smirk toward Harry. He assumed that Scorpina was doing something similar, but Goldar's face was infinitely easier to read than hers at present. "SO BE IT, MAGELING!" Goldar spoke with a nod before the two stomped forward. "DON'T SAY YOU WEREN'T WARNED!"

Harry nodded and silently canceled his voice amplification charm. For his plan, such as it was, to work, he needed them as close as possible.

"Harry, just get out of here. We'll be fine!" Trini's voice once more came from his communicator, prompting Harry to respond.

"Give me some credit here, Trini. I do actually have a plan you know… kind of." He trailed off and winced internally as he knew that it didn't exactly inspire confidence.

"And that plan is…?" Zack prompted.

Harry just shrugged and shot another uneasy smile at the Rangers through the eyes of the Megazord before looking back up toward the monsters. By this time Goldar and Scorpina were standing just beyond where the Megazord's feet were obscured by the water and were lifting their swords over their heads to finish off Harry and the Rangers.

"ANY LAST WORDS, MAGELING?"

Harry smirked. "Only that that is probably the worst question to ask a fully trained wizard who uses vocal spells as his primary method of casting." Knowing that Goldar and Scorpina wouldn't have heard that, and slightly wishing he hadn't canceled his Sonorous, Harry settled for jabbing his wand toward the two and shouting as loud as possible, gathering up his magic and pushing as much into the spell as he possibly could. " _REDUCIO MAXIMA DUO!_ "

Harry's knees nearly buckled and he was almost sure he sprained his right elbow from holding it steady through the kickback from his spell leaving his wand. The bright light shot forward several feet before splitting off into two separate bolts guided by his willpower, one heading for each of the giant monsters poised to kill him and the Rangers. The instant the spells impacted into the monsters' chests, Harry felt a massive strain on himself as his magic battled with Rita's to assert dominance.

Growling to himself, Harry widened his stance slightly and put his left hand over his right on his now heavily vibrating wand. With an internal heave, the Man-Who-Won showed why Dolores Umbridge and her supporters had been afraid of his power as he flung the full force of the most powerful wizard of his generation behind his spell with a furious shout.

He could feel the holly wood of his wand heating up beneath his fingers as he once more strained against the physical kickback from the immense amount of magical energy flowing from his focus. He was happy to note, however, that he had overpowered Rita's spell quite handily.

Harry felt a small smile stretch across his face through the strain as he watched Goldar and Scorpina start to shrink. The two monsters seemed unable to move, though the panic in their eyes told him that they were certainly trying. There must have been something in the intent of Harry's spell that kept them from escaping their now inevitable fate.

Less than ten seconds later, the two monsters finally stopped shrinking. They had been losing size centered around the impact points of Harry's spell on their chests and so it was that when his spell finally released its hold on them they were left to fall nearly forty feet into the water below. Harry fell to his knees as his spell sputtered out, his wand giving out a short burst of sparks before going silent as well.

He looked up briefly in time to see the two shrunken monsters burst through the surface of the water, struggling mightily to stay afloat despite their most likely heavy armor. He was mildly interested to notice that Scorpina was still in her scorpion monster form instead of having reverted to her more human looking form. These were his thoughts as his body began to give out on him and he collapsed face down on Megazord's chest, his head coming to rest facedown which allowed him a wonderful view at the seemingly paralyzed Rangers within.

Harry gave them a weak smile as he pulled his free hand into view and made a thumbs up. "Got you covered, guys…" And then he went limp as consciousness deserted him once more.

-MR-

Harry woke with a groan to the familiar black ceiling and sounds of the Command Center. "I really have to stop doing this…"

His comment brought the attention of the five Rangers immediately to him and a short scramble ensued as they quickly made their way to his side. It was Trini who asked the question they were all thinking though. "Stop doing what, Harry?"

Shooting her a self-depreciating smile, Harry sat up slowly with one hand to his head to sooth the slight headache he felt growing. "Stop doing stupid stuff that knocks me unconscious so that I end up waking up on a cot in the middle of the Command Center. It's getting a bit monotonous."

Trini and Billy moved to help him turn on the cot, allowing him to sit facing Zordon's still empty tube before he spoke again. "So what happened after I blacked out? Is the Megazord safe?"

The Rangers exchanged a few uneasy looks before Jason shook his head slowly. "Alpha teleported you here right after you passed out. And then the Green Ranger showed up, giant-sized…"

"Bugger…" Harry mumbled, resting his face in his palms as his mind raced.

"Yeah, that's about right," Zack confirmed. "We called the Power Sword and Billy managed to use it to recharge the power cells enough to fight him, but just when we started to get the upper hand, Rita stepped up and blasted us."

Harry shot him a look when he stopped talking before sweeping his gaze around to the others. None of them looked like they were going to pick up the story. Finally, he decided more prompting was necessary. "And…? What happened? Was the Megazord destroyed?"

The Rangers just flinched, but it was Alpha who spoke from behind one of the consoles as he wobbled back to the center. "Not exactly, but none of the Zords can be accessed. It is clear the destroying the Zords was Rita's intention, but with your intervention that was made impossible before the eclipse would have ended, recharging the Megazord's power cells and allowing the Rangers to defeat the Green Ranger."

"And that still tells me nothing," Harry was starting to get a bit irritated at this point. "So if the Megazord wasn't destroyed then why is everyone so bummed out?"

Alpha once more answered his questions. "Rita trapped the Megazord deep underground and sealed it there with powerful magic. I'm afraid that the Megazord is out of our reach for the foreseeable future. Unless something miraculous happens, it may as well have been destroyed."

"Yeah, man, and it's like…" Zack trailed off for a moment. "We've had the Zords for a while. We've fought alongside them… it's like they're a part of us, you know?"

"And now they're gone." Billy said simply, leading to another brief silence amongst the teens.

"Without our Zords, there's nothing we can do against Rita's monsters if she grows them." Jason said slowly. "They were our most powerful weapon and unless we can get them back we're at a serious disadvantage."

A few more minutes of silence passed before Trini suddenly perked up. "Hey, at least we still have Harry's magic! So things aren't totally bad, right?"

Zack was quick to pick up on her train of thought. "Yeah, Harry totally kicked ass out there! He shrank Goldar and Scorpina back to normal size like nothin'!"

The other Rangers seemed to lighten up slightly at their enthusiasm and Harry couldn't help the small smile that grew on his face too. "I can't understand why Scorpina stayed in that scorpion monster form instead of changing back to human though," Billy said.

Harry shot him a mischievous smile. "That's because my spell didn't cancel Rita's, it just shrank their current size back to something closer to normal."

"Isn't that the same thing?" Kimberly asked with confusion written on her face.

"Not exactly," Harry responded sitting up straighter. "Part of Rita's spell is what made Scorpina change, so I can only assume that since she didn't change back, both spells were in effect at once."

Billy, his brain working faster than the others, seemed to get what Harry was hinting at if his growing smile was anything to go by, but the others still seemed confused. Finally, Jason was the one to ask. "So what does that mean?"

Harry chuckled before he spoke. "It means that if my spell lasts longer than Rita's, which it should since I put so much power into it, once Rita's wears off Goldar and Scorpina should end up somewhere in the vicinity of six inches tall until mine fades."

The Power Rangers all shared a laugh at the image of a pint sized Goldar and Scorpina raging at their circumstances.

Once they had calmed down, Harry voiced another question. "Hey, where is my wand, by the way?"

The Rangers looked around in confusion before Alpha spoke up. "I have it here." The robot walked up with Harry's wand in his hand and the faint smell of char washed over the assembled humans. "I took it from you when you were teleported here. It was smoldering slightly and I didn't want you to get burnt."

Harry's eyes widened as he took the slightly blackened stick from Alpha. "Smoldering?"

Alpha nodded his saucer shaped head before turning back to the consoles and resuming his work. "Yes. It wasn't quite on fire, but there was a trail of smoke and a few embers. I didn't want to take any chances."

The Rangers had all gone still as Harry stared at his most recent focus, only now realizing that he no longer felt the faint tingle of magic as he held it.

"What…" Trini started quietly before clearing her throat and speaking again. "What does that mean?"

Harry slowly turned the wand over in his hands as he spoke. "You remember when I told you guys that my wand was unstable because of how it was made? How the core components weren't meshing as well as I would have liked and that it could have consequences?"

The Rangers nodded and it was Harry's turn to fail to speak this time. After all the work he had put into the wand, it was rather painful to see what had happened. He wouldn't have done anything different if placed in the situation again, saving the Rangers was more than worth it, but it was still disheartening.

"What is it, Harry?" Trini asked, kneeling down next to him and putting a hand on his arm.

In response, Harry lifted his wand and gave it a sharp flick. It was a standard spell-casting movement, one that the Rangers had seen him use multiple times both in and out of battle, but this time was different. This time, the weakened wood of the burnt out wand cracked and the top few inches broke free, flipping through the air before landing with a soft clatter, the burnt ashes that had once been the core of Harry's wand fluttering through the air in its wake.

Harry idly examined the portion of the wand remaining in his hands, watching as more ashes poured from the exposed cavity within the wooden shaft.

There was silence in the Command Center for several moments before anyone spoke.

"Could you make another one?" Jason asked, his voice already sounding defeated, as if he knew the answer before asking.

Harry shook his head. "Not in any acceptable amount of time. It would take at least a day just to carve out an appropriate wand shaft. Besides that, I'd need more core components. Pretty much everything I had was destroyed in the magical storm that was created when I sealed this one up. And I doubt Rita will be sending many monsters I can harvest from as long as she has Tommy at her command.

In the back of Harry's mind, he was slightly surprised at Jason's lack of outburst at his mentioning Tommy. But then he realized that if Zack had told Jason about his education on their rules against escalating battles that he had probably also explained about their confirmed theory on the Green Ranger's identity. Then those thoughts were cast aside as his mind was once more overtaken by grief over the loss of his wand. He could fully sympathize with the Rangers over losing their Zords. It may not have been the best wand, being unbalanced and made from less than ideal materials, but Harry had put a lot of work into it. It was, just as Zack had said, like losing a part of himself.

"Is there nothing that can be done?" Alpha asked, pleading apparent in his mechanical voice. Harry's silent shake of his head was the only answer offered.

Finally, after several seconds of silence. "We're fucked," Zack deadpanned.

Harry sighed. "Only slightly…"

-MR-

Thanks for reading and don't forget to review,

Tenstar12


	16. Chapter 16

Magi Ranger

By: Tenstar12

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or Power Rangers.

 **Chapter 16, In Which Harry Goes Where No (Wand) Wizard has Gone Before…**

"We're fucked…"

"Yes, Zack, you've said that already."

"Multiple times…"

"And that doesn't make it any less true!"

It had been mere minutes since Harry revealed that his wand was now useless and it seemed as though the entirety of the Rangers' resolve had burnt up as readily as his wand. Jason stood as the sole voice of reason amongst the Rangers with Alpha adding in a few comments every now and then while Harry stood stoically to one side.

"That may be," Jason insisted, rising from where he had been leaning on one of the consoles as he spoke. "But we can't just give up!"

"Why shouldn't we?" Kimberly interjected, her face downtrodden as she stood up to their leader. "Zordon is gone. The Zords may as well be. Harry's wand is out of commission. There's nothing more we can do!"

"But there's always a chance!" Jason shot back, his voice unwavering in his determination. "As long as we are willing and able to fight there's always a chance and even the smallest chance is enough of a reason to continue fighting. The world needs us, Rangers!"

Zack shook his head in exasperation. "Just face it, Jason. The Green Ranger was Rita's trump card. She played it. She won."

"No Rangers. I cannot accept that, Zordon would not accept that!" Alpha spoke firmly but a clear hint of panic was detectable in his robotic voice.

"But Zordon isn't here, Alpha." Billy said, turning from where he had been examining one of the consoles. "And no matter what we try, we can't seem to get a fix on his location."

"And what about Tommy!" Jason near shouted into the silence that followed Billy's comment. "We have to find a way to break Rita's spell and save him! We have to keep fighting if only to do that!"

There were several second of silence before Trini finally spoke up. "Harry… what do you think?"

One by one, the other Rangers turned to face the silent wizard. Harry was leaning up against one of the walls behind the consoles staring blankly at the ground, but he looked up when Trini spoke. Slowly, he met each of the Ranger's eyes, ending with Trini, before he spoke. "I know how you all feel. It's rather disturbing to me how close some of the parallels are between our situation now and the one I faced back at home during my own war…"

Harry pushed off the wall and moved to stand within the circle of consoles as the Rangers gathered in a group before him. "I told you I was involved in fighting against a group of terrorists and that I was the one directly responsible for taking out their leader and ending the whole thing. What I didn't mention was the circumstances that led up to that victory."

Harry sighed deeply, once more meeting each of their gazes as he spoke. "They were dark times. The Order of the Phoenix, that's what we called ourselves, were left fighting against a force of sadistic murderers who wanted nothing more than to kill everyone that didn't follow their beliefs in an effort to take over the country and quite possibly the world after that all under the banner of a glorified form of racism. We were under prepared, under staffed, and most of us were completely outmatched when it came to single combat against most of the members of Voldemort's forces. But there was one fact that kept us going despite all that. We knew that if we were to lose, if Voldemort and his Death Eaters were to take over, then all of those that we loved would be killed. All that we held dear would be perverted and destroyed. If we gave up, if we just decided one day that Voldemort had won and we couldn't do anything else to stop him, there would be nowhere in the world we could hide before he found us."

Harry could see his rather morbid message was sinking in as the horror started to grow in the Rangers' eyes. It was clear that they hadn't considered this part of the battle. "You have fought valiantly since the day Zordon chose you to become the Power Rangers and have managed to stop Rita at every turn until she brought in her own Ranger. The situation now is definitely rather serious, but if you were to simply give up it would hardly take you out of the fight. Rita would come down here with her armies, largely unopposed, and sweep through Angel Grove and the rest of the world from there. She would leave chaos and destruction in her wake, and anything and everything that any of us hold dear she would take personal pleasure in destroying completely."

He let his head drop as he fought back a few dark memories from his own war before glancing back up at them again. "I know it's not really what you want to hear, but right now, you five are the only thing standing in the way of Rita and her conquest of Earth. Zordon chose you all for a reason. Jason is right, even the slightest chance of victory is enough of a reason to continue fighting. Especially when you are fighting for all of your friends and family who would otherwise be defenseless against evil."

The five Rangers stood silent for several moments, their eyes glazed over slightly as they thought about what Harry had said. Finally, Kimberly shook her head. "I… I never really thought about it like that…"

The other four mumbled their agreement as Harry spoke again. "I know that's not really the kind of message you guys were hoping for, but we really have no other choice right now. We have to do whatever we can to combat the darkness, because without us, where would the world be?"

The Command Center once more descended into silence, even Alpha keeping quiet as the Rangers contemplated. Harry once more broke the silence as he stepped forward, holding his hand out palm down before him. "What do you say guys? For our family and friends, for all those innocents who would suffer if Rita were to take over, for everyone in Angel Grove and the World, we have to fight. Are you with me?"

Harry wasn't at all surprised when Jason was the first to step forward and place his hand over Harry's. His eyes were radiating his gratitude as he walked up, though Harry couldn't help but wonder how long it would last this time before Jason started sniping at him again.

Trini soon followed Jason and joined them with a soft small smile on her face and with Kimberly right on her tail. "You're right, Harry," the Pink Ranger said slowly. "I really don't like the situation as you painted it for us, but you're right. We have to keep fighting."

Billy was next to step forward and place his hand on the growing stack. "You're conclusion is logical, Harry. I'm just sorry I didn't see it before."

With only Zack left standing outside their huddle, all eyes turned to him. "You know," the Black Ranger said somewhat grumpily. "If Zordon had explained that stuff to us from the beginning I doubt any of us would have accepted the Power."

Harry rolled his eyes. "Destiny is rarely apparent to everyone from the get go, Zack. Do you think I wanted to be tossed into the middle of a war against a dark wizard who was supposed to have died a decade before when I first started going to Hogwarts at age eleven?" Harry was cut off by a shocked outcry from the Rangers at his revelation, but he merely waved his free hand airily. "I'll explain another time. But the point, Zack, is that I spent my first several years at Hogwarts trying to be nothing more than 'just Harry.' The only problem with that is that I was dragged right back into the heart of things no matter what I did. Fact is, nobody chooses to get involved in these things. Or at least nobody who can still be considered sane. But with how things are now, you are involved. All of us are and if we don't fight, who will?"

Zack only took another few seconds before he walked up and joined the group, placing his hand on top. "I suppose Zordon couldn't really give us all the doom and gloom stuff from the start or we would have run like crazy. You're right, Harry. We have to do this for everyone."

Harry smiled at the teen. "And that, Zack, is why you were chosen to be a Power Ranger. Why all of you were chosen by destiny and by Zordon to fight against Rita. Anyone can be pulled into a fight like this, but it takes a special kind of person to stand strong throughout it and fight on despite the odds."

The slightly emotional group was interrupted by a sudden loud beeping coming from several of the computer banks around them. "What's going on, Alpha?" Jason demanded as the group broke up.

The question was answered on its own as the twin pillars on either side of Zordon's tube lit up with electricity. Mere moments later, twin arcs jumped from each pillar and into the tube, forming into the outline of a familiar face. As the electrical energy faded, Zordon was revealed once more visible in the tube.

"The computer's auto-search subroutine finally located Zordon!" Alpha announced unnecessarily as the Rangers' faces all lit up at the sight of their mentor.

"ZORDON!" The Rangers all shouted in elation only for their faces to fall moments later when there was no response from the trapped wizard.

Upon closer inspection, Harry noticed that Zordon's eyes were closed and his face was tilted down slightly, as if sleeping. Mirroring his thoughts, Kimberly spoke up. "Is he asleep? Or can he even hear us?"

Alpha wobbled up to one of the computers and began pressing buttons again. "I sincerely doubt it. As he is caught in a time warp, Zordon has not slept in over ten thousand years and the computer indicates that all communication lines have been successfully established with Zordon. I just don't understand it! It's like he just isn't there!"

Zack slumped slightly and voiced what was on all of their minds. "Dammit… And just when I thought we were getting a break too…"

"Can you think of anything that would make Zordon act this way?" Trini asked Alpha, moving up to his side and watching as he continued to press seemingly random buttons on the console before him.

"Do you think Rita could have attacked him somehow?" Kimberly spoke next, fear once more in her voice.

"No," Alpha responded instantly. "That's impossible. When she trapped Zordon in the time warp it was intended to be for all eternity. It was only through incredible luck and Zordon's help from his end that I was able to establish a connection with him after he was first trapped. Rita had to make the prison incredibly strong to ensure he couldn't escape without a phenomenal amount of power, far more than Zordon or Rita could ever expect to have alone. If she had left a way to attack Zordon within his prison then he would have been able to use that opening to break out centuries ago."

"Take a look at this." Billy called from another console as he examined a printout he had just retrieved. "It's a diagnosis of Zordon's bio signature and bioelectrical readings."

Jason took the offered paper from the Blue Ranger and glanced at it for a moment before blinking and leaning closer. Harry took a peak at it from over Jason's shoulder and couldn't help but understand his reaction. The print on the paper was incredibly small and what little he could make out made absolutely no sense to him.

Kimberly, after taking a glance at the paper herself, turned back to Billy. "Billy, not all of us have genius level IQs. Could you please explain to us what this means?"

"Preferably in the Queen's English if at all possible?" Harry quickly said, feeling a slight headache just from his short glance at what was probably an incredibly complex technical readout.

Billy blinked before smiling sheepishly. "Sorry about that. It says that Zordon's physical health is as impeccable as always, which makes sense as he is effectively frozen as he was when he was first trapped, but his brainwave activity has diverged from the norm."

Alpha moved over to Jason and examined the paper in his grasp. "Yes… it does appear as though his mental activity levels have decreased approximately 27% from normal… almost as if…" The robot perked up slightly before turning quickly and moving faster than Harry had ever seen him move back to the central computer station where he started pressing buttons again.

"So what…" Zack offered slowly. "His lights are on, but nobody is home?"

The Rangers and Harry exchanged confused glances until Alpha interrupted them with an uncharacteristic shout. "YES! He is! Zordon is in meditation. He must be communing with the Morphing Grid!"

"He's doing what with the what now?" Zack asked, even Billy showing a hint of confusion for once.

Alpha turned back to face them, happiness evident in his voice. "According to the readings and after comparing them to past readings I can confidently conclude that Zordon is currently attempting to speak with the consciousness at the heart of the Morphing Grid that is the source of the Morphing Powers. He must be trying to get some kind of help for the battle against Rita and her Green Ranger!"

"So Zordon is trying to find something to help us?" Trini asked quietly, confidence growing in her eyes once more.

"Most likely, yes." Alpha nodded happily. "He does this every so often, seeking advice from the Grid before making any large decision about the Power. The last time he did so was shortly before requesting I teleport the five of you to the Command Center to become the Power Rangers. Based on these readings, he has been in his meditative state since shortly after the last time we got a partial line of communication with him. That would explain why we haven't been able to establish another link since then. He was too busy to aid the connection himself."

When Alpha trailed off, the humans in the room waited eagerly as the robot continued working the controls before him. After a minute or so, Jason finally spoke up. "Can you tell us anything else? Are there any chances of him waking up any time soon? We could really use a bit of advice about now."

When the Rangers and Harry all voiced varying levels of agreement, Alpha finally spoke again, although hesitantly. "I'm not sure, Jason. I am searching the computer records for any past instance of a communion with the Morphing Grid having taken this long, but I have been so far unsuccessful. It is possible that Zordon is having difficulties on his end, but rather doubtful since his situation hasn't changed in the time he has been trapped beyond losing connection with the Command Center."

"Is he in some kind of trouble, Alpha?" Kimberly asked in concern, glancing worriedly up at Zordon's still face.

"I really don't know, Kimberly." Alpha responded, much to the Ranger's disappointment, "I have no way of finding that out from this end. Zordon always kept the majority of the details of his communications with the Morphing Grid private beyond explaining the final decisions and conclusions made. I suppose it is possible he is having some kind of difficulty, but there is no way to know for sure."

Harry and the Rangers were silent once more. Each of them mulling over the thought that they had Zordon back, but at the same time didn't. It was frustrating in the extreme for them all in light of recent events.

"Hey!" Kimberly suddenly shouted, making everyone jump slightly. "Sorry, but I just had an idea. Since Zordon is doing his magic thing and we can't contact him while he is, why don't we send our resident magic guy after him?"

All eyes turned to Harry who felt his eyes widen slightly. "Err… I don't know that that would work very well Kimberly."

"Why not?" she all but demanded, frowning at him.

"Well for one thing, I use a different brand of magic. I don't really know that I would be able to do what he's doing."

Billy hummed for a moment before speaking. "While your caution has merit, the fact that Rita was able to use small amounts of your particular brand of magic in her spells, even if unintentionally, indicates that it may be irrelevant."

Harry ran Billy's words through his mind a few times to figure out what he was saying before continuing. "And secondly, I have no real idea how to do what he's done, much less find Zordon once I'm wherever I would need to be."

Alpha was the one who popped his balloon this time drawing everyone's attention as he spoke. "From what I understand of the process, Zordon puts himself into a meditative state and follows his personal connection to the morphing grid to the heart of the Power. He described it once like a trail of energy he has to follow. If I calibrate the sensors correctly, I should be able to detect any such energy trail to more closely pinpoint Zordon's interdimensional location. With a few sensors linking you to the computer, I would be able to use it to guide you to Zordon's presence. From there, you should be able to locate and follow the same trail Zordon did since you have already demonstrated an ability to sense when Morphing Grid energy is used to cast spells."

Harry could feel the Rangers' excitement and hope growing even as his own protests were defeated. He really didn't like this idea, especially as it seemed like a very desperate move to him. In his experience, desperate moves were performed with little planning or preparation and ended rather poorly more often than not. All the same, he couldn't think of any other reason to object and in the current situation, desperate moves were probably the only option they had.

With a great sigh and a certain feeling of foreboding, Harry nodded his head. "Alright, if you think that this will work, Alpha, then I suppose I'll give it a shot."

Harry's feeling of dread only got deeper as the Rangers began cheering, probably happy just to have some kind of a plan.

-MR-

Alpha had only needed a few minutes to modify the computer's sensors and locate the trail of Morphing Grid energy that Zordon had followed. So it was that a mere ten minutes later saw Harry once more lying on a cot in the center of the circle of consoles. The biggest difference this time were numerous wires and such attached to his head and then connected to one of the nearby computers.

"Now remember, Harry," Alpha instructed from nearby. "Once you have placed yourself in a meditative state, the computer will guide your mental projection to Zordon's physical presence. Once there, you should be able to locate the energy trail and follow it right to Zordon."

Harry nodded before letting out a sigh. "I would just like to go on record, once again, by saying that I'm not entirely comfortable with this."

Jason frowned at him from his spot next to Zack several feet away. "Then why did you agree to do it?"

"Because I can't support speeches like the one I made earlier if I'm not willing to back up my own beliefs when it comes down to it. This is an absolutely crazy plan, but it's the only one we have. We need Zordon's help if there is any chance of beating out Rita and breaking her spell on Tommy."

Kimberly and Trini walked up next to the cot and looked down at him, both looking concerned. Kimberly spoke first. "If you really aren't comfortable with this then you don't have to do it, Harry. We'll find some other way. Heck, maybe we could even just wait for Zordon to come out of his trance himself. It might not even be too long before he does."

Harry smiled at Kimberly and her attempt to give him an out, even though this had originally been her idea that everyone else just ran with. "It's fine Kimberly. This really is the only choice we have and I really am the only one who can do it. I'll be fine."

Kimberly nodded though Harry thought he caught sight of tears in her eyes before she turned away. Trini just kneeled down next to the cot and put a hand on his arm, squeezing lightly. "Promise you'll come back?"

Harry grinned as reassuringly as possible. "I promise I'll do my very best."

Trini just stared at him for a moment before lunging forward and hugging him as best she could while he was lying on the cot. He had been told not to move too much or else risk displacing some of the electrodes on his face so couldn't hug her back properly, but he did the best he could. A few moments later, Trini leaned back with a blush bright enough to light the room. "I… ah… you owed me a hug for saving you earlier…"

Harry smiled slightly, his mind spinning and fighting down his own blush as best he could. "Right… of course."

Trini gave him one final nod and stood abruptly before speed walking to stand next to Kimberly. The Pink Ranger was clearly fighting down a smile on her face as she shot random glances at her friend who was resolutely studying her shoes.

Harry glanced in the other direction to find Zack and Jason fighting down snickers of their own. He lifted one eyebrow as he continued to stare at them until Zack finally noticed and straightened himself up, casually elbowing Jason and nodding toward the wizard so the Red Ranger would sober himself as well.

Giving the two a brief nod, Harry glanced to where Alpha and Billy were working the computers. The plan was for at least one of them to remain at the station, monitoring his progress as best they could in the hopes of averting any life ending consequences. That was the plan anyway. In all truth, despite the example of Rita, Harry really wasn't sure that his magic wouldn't react poorly to the process. In his experience, and he had relayed this to the others, his type of magic had this crazy habit of shorting out electronics every time they met. This point had even been proven when Billy had had to go through so many prototypes before finding a communicator that wouldn't die as soon as he tried to use it. Alpha, however, insisted that the computers in the Command Center were heavily shielded from that type of energy overload, so there would be nothing to worry about now that they were fully repaired again.

Harry was hardly convinced, but he knew there wasn't really another choice.

"Are you ready, Harry?" Alpha asked, waddling over with a handheld device of some kind that he waved over Harry's body before pressing a few buttons and repeating the gesture.

"Ready as I'll ever be," was Harry's tired sounding reply.

"Alright," Alpha nodded before moving back to his station. "The computers are ready. Go ahead and go into your meditative state and I will begin the process."

Harry gave a slight nod, once more to avoid shifting the sensors. "Wish me luck…"

With a great exhalation, Harry forced his body to relax and let himself fade into the meditative trance he used to work on his Occlumency shields.

-MR-

Harry felt his consciousness return as it always did when he entered his mindscape. As he floated in the peaceful realm of his mind he spread his presence out as he was taught, feeling each of the magical shields he had painstakingly erected around his mind in the years he had been practicing Occlumency. Noting that each barrier was fully intact as he passed them, Harry reached the outermost one just in time to feel a slight ping with a decidedly… artificial feel to it. With a mental sigh, Harry gathered himself together again and grasped the probe that he assumed was from the computer and felt his consciousness get tugged outside of his mind in a way he had never felt before.

Harry had tried to learn Legilimency once he had gotten the hang of Occlumency. Mad Eye Moody had been of the opinion that it was important for as many people on a single squad as possible to have the skill for interrogation purposes and so had mandated training in at least the basics. Harry, however, had balked at the feeling of leaving his own mind and body behind to explore another's and so had dropped out of the training. It just wasn't for him, he'd said.

Now he felt himself reliving the tense, all-consuming sensation of flying outside of one's own physical body multiplied several times over as the probe pulled him along completely outside of his control and presumably toward Zordon's physical presence so he could complete the task set for him. If it hadn't been for the "solid" presence of the computer's magi-technological probe for Harry to "grip," he probably would have lost his mind from the sheer feeling of discomfort and fear he felt as he flew through the emptiness around him.

Flying blind through the void, far from the safety and familiarity of his body, was not what Harry Potter considered a good time.

Finally, after what felt like hours but was probably only a few minutes, Harry felt something different. Up ahead of him in the direction he was being pulled, he could feel a massive and calming presence. Only when the sensation of movement stopped did Harry register it as the feel of Zordon's massive magical reserves. Harry was well and truly floored by the immensity of the trapped wizard's power. He had thought Zordon was powerful when he was only feeling his projected presence, but if what he felt now was any indication then Rita may have had no other choice than to imprison him if she ever wanted any chance of winning their war.

Though it was possible that Zordon's power had only reached this level through the ten thousand years he had been magically exerting himself while trapped…

Giving himself a mental shake, mostly because he currently had no physical body, Harry once more extended his presence into the emptiness around him, hoping to find some hint of the magical energy trail that he was supposed to find while still keeping a "hand" on the probe so he could find his way back should all else fail.

Finally, after a few minutes of searching, Harry felt something different. It was an energy source leading away from Zordon's physical presence that felt more… pure than what was emanating from the wizard. It was just energy with no tints to it that would resonate with one wielder or the other.

Hoping against hope that this was what he was looking for, Harry pulled his own presence back into a compact form and drifted toward the trail, releasing his hold on the probe as he did so and giving a mental sigh of relief when it remained in the same general "location."

He approached the energy and tentatively "touched" it only to feel himself be pulled into and along the trail at a "speed" much faster than that of the probe. He felt his panic return as he went, flying through the void once more outside his own control and this time without even the life raft of the probe to "cling" to.

And then, just as suddenly, he stopped. And Zordon was there.

"Harry?" Zordon asked, his presence as all-consuming as he had ever felt in its purely magical form.

"Zordon…" Harry sighed in relief. "I was really freaking out there for a second. I wasn't sure where I was going. This whole thing was really poorly planned. None of us even had any idea if it would work right and…"

"Harry, calm down please." Zordon's voice cut through Harry's and instilled a sense of peace within the wizard. "What has happened that led you to try and reach me here? Are things so desperate already?"

Harry "nodded" before answering, "Without a doubt. The Zords are out of commission and the wand I was able to craft is burnt out. Rita is on the verge of winning and I was only barely able to convince/scare the Rangers into not giving up on the fight entirely. The computer finally managed to establish a connection with you, but you were in a trance and everyone started freaking again. Then the plan was hatched for me to try this. They need your help, Zordon. Heck, I need your help. I don't know what I'm doing around here! I was barely involved in the planning stuff in my own war. I spent more time training than anything else and it was only desperation the lead to me even finishing things when I did. I-"

Harry's rant was cut off by a massive chuckle that reverberated throughout the area around them as a massive presence entirely made up of pure, un-tinted energy burst into existence around them. " **So, this is the little magic user that dropped into the middle of things and disturbed the balance in our dimension…** "

If Harry had been in his physical body, he would have had the wind knocked out of him. This presence was more massively powerful than anything he had ever felt before and it was only the slight feeling of jovial laughter in its voice that kept Harry from descending into a full panic.

"Who…? What…?"

The laughter rang out again before the presence pulled itself in, now less all-encompassing than it had first been which made it quite a bit less nerve wracking for the wizard. " **I apologize, young one. Usually, by the time a magic user first meets me they are more used to immersing themselves in the outer edges of my power and so they don't react as strongly as you did.** "

Harry drew himself together again, feeling very much out of his element, before asking the pressing question on his mind. "Who… or what are you?"

" **Have you not guessed my little friend? I am the protector of the balance in the dimension you found yourself in. I am that which grants the forces of goodness and justice the power to battle against all that is evil. I am the embodiment of the Morphing Grid. A consciousness that developed over the untold eons of the existence of the Power.** "

"Ah…" Harry stammered. He was happy that he had, apparently, reached his destination, but it was only now that he realized that he had no idea what he was supposed to do now that he had gotten there. He himself hadn't put much thought into it and none of the others had offered any suggestions.

His rapid thought process was cut shot as the Grid chuckled once more. " **You were quite right about him, Zordon. I like him already.** " What had the Grid meant by that? Was it reading his mind somehow? " **It is kind of hard not to when you are shouting all your thoughts for all to hear. You are well outside of your shields, young one, and the style of mental protection your people use leaves you woefully unprotected when outside of those shields. It is not unsurprising since, as far as I can tell, there is no great presence behind your race's magical power, but it is a fact all the same.** "

Harry was feeling embarrassed at this point. "Sorry about that…" Only then did he notice a distinct feeling of amusement coming from Zordon's presence. Was he enjoying Harry's embarrassment?

Another booming laugh was his answer and he was once more reminded that both these presences could read his thoughts without any apparent effort. " **To spare you any further embarrassment, young Harry, I will move on to my point. You have been an individual of great interest to me ever since you passed into my realm of notice. I do not blame you for it, especially since you being here is the work of a Power even greater then myself, but your presence and that of your stolen focus has greatly upset the balance of power in our dimension. With Rita's power enhanced, she has been able to take more of the Power for her own use. This in turn had shifted the balance of energies away from the side of the light all across the galaxy, resulting in the various agents of evil being able to take even greater portions of Power for themselves which then shifts it further still. It is a process of exponential growth and something that only you can hope to fix now.** "

"M-me?" Harry stuttered. "How do you expect me to be able to fix something like that? This sounds like a huge problem. Definitely way outside of my ability to fix. How can I be the only one who can?"

"It is simply because you are the original cause of the shift, Harry." Zordon spoke up, drawing Harry's attention. "It is as the Grid said, you are not to blame for you came into our dimension without knowing the ramifications and you hardly allowed Rita to take your Elder Wand from you, but the fact remains that your arrival in our dimension is what caused the issue that we now face."

" **Zordon speaks truly, young one, but it is as easy a problem to fix as it was for you to arrive.** " The Grid sounded almost smug as it spoke.

Harry felt like his brain had gone blank, and not just because he was trying not to think of anything too loudly. "So… does that mean that you want the light side to win this war?"

He heard what was unmistakably a snort before the Grid spoke again. " **Not at all. I merely desire the balance. The Power is me and I am the Power. If the balance in the Power shifts, as it has been doing since you arrived as previously stated, then I shift along with it. I am not… comfortable when off balance. Evil will always exist somewhere, just as good will. I am only content when the two forces are in balance and you must help restore this balance. You were a powerful force for good and the light in your own dimension so it is only fitting that you take the mantle up once more in this one.** " The tone of the Grid's voice shifted to a noticeably more jovial nature. " **Besides, whenever someone accesses the Power, I become aware of everything around that being. Some of the battles and struggles that my wielders go through are quite entertaining. It is one reason I take such a close role in designing some of the manifestations of my Power, it amuses to me to see my work in action.** "

Slightly taken aback at the almost dismissive way the Grid was now speaking, not to mention the fact that multiple battles for the safety of unknown millions of innocents across the galaxy were considered mere entertainment, Harry mulled the situation over. If what he had been told was true, then his appearance in this dimension had thrown things completely off kilter. If things continued as they were, evil would eventually win and it could all be traced back to him. Could he really just stand by and let innocents suffer under the forces of darkness? He had had a problem with blaming himself in his last world every time something bad happened, even when he had not been directly involved, but how bad would he react when things really could be considered his fault. In this situation, didn't he have a duty to do whatever possible to correct the problem?

But above all this, it came down to his "Saving People Thing." If he wasn't willing to put his all into helping others, he wouldn't be Harry James Potter. Despite all the trouble it had gotten him into in the past, it was an essential part of what made him who he was. It was why he had put up relatively little fight when he first became involved in the battle against Rita. Yes, she stole his wand and yes, he ended up in the middle of the battle with the Pinoctopus without truly intending to, but deep down he always knew he would be involved in this new fight against evil in the first place. It was just what he did.

"Well said, Harry." The pride in Zordon's voice was almost tangible as Harry blushed at his not-quite-private thoughts yet again. "So, can it be done?"

Zordon's last statement was directed at the Grid's presence, but it was to Harry that it answered. " **Young Harry, I have made the decision to take your presence here as a challenge. You have greatly thrown off the balance of the Power and so will need to be an equally great force of light to correct that. As such there will be certain sacrifices you must make in order to obtain my help in saving your new friends and new home.** "

Harry felt an edge of uneasiness creep up on him. "What kind of sacrifices…?"

The Grid's presence gave off the feel of a shrug. " **I ask only for half of your current magical potential. I will take this magic of yours and study it, I will integrate it into the Power, and so make it more compatible to the rest of your magic. For this I will grant you the ability to access the Power as Zordon does. In time and with training from Zordon, you will regain your current strength and may even exceed it with enough work. Along with this, I ask for the sacrifice of the physical magical artifacts you brought with you into this world. They will be used to help facilitate the Power that will be granted for your use in future battles against the forces of darkness.** "

Harry balked slightly when the Grid first began, only to relax as the exchanges were explained. Yes, he would lose a large amount of his magic, but it wasn't like it wouldn't be worth it. And the Grid had told him he could regain it in time so was he even really losing anything in the long run? The biggest problem he had was giving up the magical artifacts. The only artifacts that he had with him were the Hallows, or at least the stone and cloak since Rita had the wand. Could he really give up the only remnants and reminders of his old world? Could he give up his father's cloak?

And the biggest question… Did he have a choice?

Zordon sighed. "That is indeed the tragedy of the situation, Harry. You don't have much of a choice. Unfortunately, if you don't accept the bargain and enter the battle on our side, the imbalance will continue to grow until finally the Grid itself will turn against us and all forces on the side of the light will be cut off from the Power. At that point, Harry, darkness will inevitably take control of everything."

Harry felt his metaphysical jaw drop. "Way to break it to me easily, Zordon…"

The Grid's voice was as grim as Zordon's. " **It is a rather dire situation, Harry. Can I assume you have made your decision?** "

With a sigh of his own, Harry answered. "It's not much of a choice to make. I wouldn't be who I am if I didn't agree to your bargain. I might miss the stone and especially the cloak for what they represent, but I don't think I can afford to balance my own personal nostalgia against the safety of an entire galaxy's worth of innocents."

With satisfaction now coloring its voice, the Grid spoke once more. " **Well said indeed, young Harry. Your physical body, and the artifacts in question, are currently in Zordon's Command Center, correct?** " At Harry's confirmation, the Grid continued. " **Then I shall summon them here.** "

Mere moments later there was a flicker in the Grid's presence and Harry's ring bearing the mounted Resurrection Stone and the liquid silver of the Cloak of Invisibility appeared in the void before them. Harry was momentarily struck by the novelty of physical items existing in the vast void that his mental presence was currently in, but quickly discarded it when the Grid began humming to itself in dissatisfaction. " **There is something quite distinct missing from these items… There is a third, is there not? And that is what was taken by Rita, yes?** "

"There is," Harry answered coolly, feeling his frustration with Rita all over again. "They were known as the Deathly Hallows. Three artifacts created by Death itself and given to three wizards in my home dimension. An unbeatable wand, an undetectable invisibility cloak, and a stone that can bring back the spirits of the dead. Upon my arrival, Rita detected the wand and she and Goldar ambushed me and stole it. That's what set off this whole chain of events."

The Grid hummed for a moment more. " **Well, this will never do. We shall need a replacement, I think. At least until you regain the actual… Hallow did you call them? Hmm…** " With another pulse of its magical presence, a third physical item appeared. Harry immediately recognized it as the burned out husk of his patchwork wand, the broken tip somehow reattached but with the wood still looking charred. " **This will do for now.** "

Without warning, Harry was once more enveloped in the Power of the Morphing Grid, unable to react. To his instinctive horror, the power seemed to reach into him and grasp at something deep within. Then, with a strong pulling sensation, all Harry knew was pain. He might have screamed, though he couldn't say for sure. The burning pain engulfed his entire being in a way much greater than the Cruciatus Curse ever had as the Power invading him ripped and tore at the core of his presence.

Finally, several agonizing minutes later, Harry felt a part of himself come free as the Power pulled away from him to engulf the three physical items in a storm of Power. Harry found himself having to cling to Zordon's presence, the old wizard standing like a beacon in the night amongst this Power that would have otherwise swept Harry into the void like nothing as he recovered.

When the storm of Power died down and Harry was once more able to focus on his surroundings, the cloak, ring, and charred wand were gone and in their place was a bright point of light.

" **It has been done. The bargain was offered and accepted. Take this Power now, Harry, and use it to fight against evil. Use it to restore the balance and know that the Power now protects you.** "

Tentatively, Harry "reached" out and touched the point of light before him. Before his "eyes" the point flashed a bright white before darkening to an almost invisible black and then shifting yet again to a deep royal purple. Finally, the light contracted in on itself and turned golden, leaving Harry with the curious sensation of holding a physical object in his ethereal hand once the light died down.

" **Now, Harry, return to your body. Zordon will be waiting for you when you awaken and the battle will begin anew. Good luck Harry Potter.** "

Before he could make any response, a burst of Power from the Grid slammed into his presence, ripping him away from Zordon at such a speed there was no way he could react in time. It was only the dimly sensed but rapidly growing feel of his own body that let him relax until he slammed back into it.

He sat up with a gasp, ripping the sensors from his face as he did so and glanced around to find himself alone in the Command Center with Alpha.

"Harry! What happened? I was able to detect when you reached Zordon and started down the trail to commune with the Morphing Grid, but we didn't know how long that would take. Then Rita sent down the Green Ranger and the others went out to battle him and then you started glowing and your ring and cloak vanished and then…"

"Calm yourself Alpha 5." Zordon woke up in time to cut off the overexcited robot's ramblings long enough for Harry to fully regain himself, still not quite comprehending all that had just happened to him.

Though it only took a glance at the small item he now held in his hand to make him realize that it had been all too real.

-MR-

Thanks for reading and please don't forget to review,

Tenstar12


	17. Chapter 17

-Magi Ranger

By: Tenstar12

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or Power Rangers.

 **Chapter 17, In Which Harry Steps Back Into the Fray**

"Harry," Alpha prodded, his panic now turning to elation since Zordon spoke. "You did it! You brought Zordon back!"

"Yes, Alpha," Zordon spoke. "Harry appeared before me at the heart of the Morphing Grid and explained the situation to me. We were able to obtain the help I sought before we returned as well. Our chances of victory have never been higher, even with the obstacles the Rangers now face."

"What do you mean, Zordon?" Alpha sounded confused, but turned to Harry when Zordon nodded in his direction. With a smirk, Harry opened his hand and showed the shocked robot the item held there.

"Harry… Zordon… Is that a…?"

"Yes, Alpha," Zordon's voice was heavily tinted with pride. "Now you see why I am so confident in our victory."

Alpha seemed speechless as he repeatedly looked between Harry and the object he held in his hand. Finally, Zordon spoke once more. "Harry, listen well. Now that you hold the Power of the Morphing Grid there are a few things you must know about its use. I will do all in my power to train you more thoroughly in the future, but I fear the Rangers will need your help too soon for a detailed lesson now."

Harry nodded, a grim look on his face as he closed his fist around the Grid's gift once more. "I understand, Zordon. And I'll do what I can to fix things."

Zordon shook his head slightly. "Do not try to take everything upon yourself, Harry. The imbalance is already being corrected merely with your presence among those who use the Grid. Taking back the Elder Wand from Rita will inevitably speed up the process, but just having you join the side of good has already done what had to be done. Now, observe the Viewing Globe."

Turning, Harry walked closer to the glowing orb and watched as a picture faded into view from within its depths. The image showed a massive, bipedal dragon-like robot that was largely black and silver with a few green and gold portions destroying parts of the harbor in Angel Grove. He couldn't get much of a size scale, but it appeared to be nearly the same size as Jason's Tyrannosaurus Dinozord. The massive machine was mostly stomping around and using the spinning drill bit like end of its tail to tear into various buildings, but as Harry watched it ripped a smoke stack off of one factory and bit it in two.

"What you see before you is the mighty Dragonzord. This is the Zord associated with the Green Ranger's Power Coin. Rita has awakened it now that she believes the Megazord to be beyond our reach in order to more easily destroy Angel Grove."

As Harry watched, the scene switched to the five Rangers fighting valiantly against the Green Ranger in the middle of a city intersection, probably nearby the harbor if Harry's guess was any good. The result was much as Harry had grown to expect as of late: Tommy was defeating them all handily with a combination of the Sword of Darkness and a new, much smaller blade held in his off-hand. Each time they fell, the Rangers would rise once more to continue the fight though. They seemed to have taken Harry's earlier words to heart. "The Rangers are combatting the Green Ranger in the hopes of stopping the Dragonzord," Zordon continued. "However with Rita's magic enhancing his strength there is little chance they will be able to defeat him alone. This is where you will come in."

Harry turned back toward Zordon as he spoke. "Just tell me what to do, Zordon."

Zordon nodded before closing his eyes briefly. "This shall be your first lesson on using the Power, Harry. I fear yours shall be a highly unorthodox education, but I will do my best to pass on as much of my knowledge as you can take. In your particular case, you are used to taking your magic and weaving it to your will, but with this power you must let it guide you. You can direct it, but it knows the form that must be taken to achieve the ends you desire. Any attempt to force it to do otherwise could be disastrous. I fear the hardest part for you will be this surrender as your brand of magic must be commanded and controlled carefully to avoid similar disastrous results."

Harry flinched slightly. Giving in to the magic within you and letting it have free reign was generally frowned upon and the lesson to avoid such was hammered into his head since his first year at Hogwarts. Careful pronunciation, precise wand movements, and strong force of will and concentration were hallmarks of early magic use as he knew it. It was true that parts of the formula could be dropped as one became more adept, but the fact remained that Zordon had a point, this was going to take him once more out of his comfort zone.

"Until we have time to begin your in depth lessons, you would probably be better off drawing directly only from your own natural magic while in combat. If you are able to let the Power guide and protect you it will be all to the better, but until you have a better grasp on it I would not advise actively trying to channel its energy yourself."

Harry let off a deep sigh before speaking. "Alright then. So try and relax and go against every magic lesson I've received to date and don't try to throw around any Grid powered fireballs just yet. Got it."

Zordon chuckled slightly. "Indeed. If you look within yourself now, Harry, you should feel a separate energy source near the core of your being." With a deep breath, Harry sank into a partial trance, careful to listen as Zordon spoke, and reached down within himself for his magic. Upon finding his core, Harry first realized that it truly was much smaller than when he had last interacted with it. It made sense since the Grid had said it was going to take half of his magic, but it was still rather jarring to "see" the proof first hand. Once he had gotten over his shock, it was only a matter of moments before he found the comparatively smaller mote of light that resonated with the pure energy of the Morphing Grid's Power.

"As you have no doubt guessed, this is the representation of your access to the Power. As you practice and use it more, your strength will grow, granting you the ability to draw on more of the Power and use it to cast more and more powerful spells, much like exercising increases the size and strength of a muscle. If you are able to pull this power up and surrender yourself to the guidance of the Morphing Grid, you will be able to use the Power you have been given and put a stop to Rita's current plans."

Tentatively, Harry reached out and "touched" the mote of Grid energy. Almost immediately he felt his mind overcome with a wash of power and he instinctively slammed his Occlumency shields to full as he panicked. It was a few moments later that he realized that this was exactly the opposite of what he was supposed to be doing and took a deep, calming breath before tentatively lowering them a crack.

It started slowly, just a trickle of warmth wrapping around his mind just inside his Occlumency barriers and offering comfort. As he slowly lowered his shields to their previous state, a sense of confidence and peace, as well as a hint of satisfaction that could only have come from the Grid consciousness itself, settled into place before fading to a kind of background buzz as he tried to accept the gift he was given. Then, his mind was flooded with information. He knew what he had to do to begin to access his new Power.

Shaking himself out of his trance, Harry looked back up at Zordon. "Why do I get the sinking feeling that I'm going to be waving my arms around like a crazy person and making ridiculous poses like the rest of the Rangers now?"

The humor in Zordon's voice was unmistakable. "Some sacrifices must be made for the safety of the galaxy, Harry."

Harry just sighed, his free hand massaging his forehead to ward off the slight headache he felt building. "Fine… I don't like it, but it's what has to be done. What's the plan?"

Zordon nodded in satisfaction, a slight smirk still on his face, before speaking. "Alpha, teleport the Rangers to the location where the Megazord was buried. Rita will most likely order Tommy to pursue them and send reinforcements to help ensure her victory. Once they have arrived, Harry will teleport to their side so they may begin the counterattack while you and I see about freeing the Megazord from Rita's spell before the Dragonzord is able to catch up."

"Right!" Alpha cheered. "It's good to have you back, Zordon."

Zordon smiled once more. "It is good to be back, Alpha. Now, are you prepared, Harry?"

Harry firmed himself up and nodded. "As I'll ever be, Zordon. Alpha, whenever you're ready."

"Alright, teleporting now!"

-MR-

It was to yet another large valley clearing that the Rangers found themselves teleported to, having been abruptly pulled from their battle with the Green Ranger at almost the same instant they were informed that Zordon had returned. They had been overjoyed to hear of their mentor's return, but the emotion was quickly overcome by confusion.

"Why did Alpha teleport us here?" Jason shouted, as he looked around.

Zack was quick to follow up as he held one hand to the singed chest of his suit. "Yeah, I don't see how getting our butts handed to us outside the city is any different from where we were…"

"Wait," Billy suddenly piped up. "Isn't this where Rita trapped the Zords?"

Glancing around, the other Rangers quickly realized that their resident genius was indeed correct. Their battle with the giant Green had led them out of the shallows off the coast and into the very valley they were now standing in where Rita had blasted the Megazord and trapped it underground. If nothing else, the numerous giant footprints from the Megazord gave it away.

Any further contemplation on their parts was interrupted as a crack split the air as a bolt of lightning arced across the sky briefly before raking across the ground, leaving a horde of putties behind in its wake. Another flash, this time three points of yellow light, flared into existence just in front of the horde before quickly fading to reveal Goldar, Scorpina, and the Green Ranger. The fact that Scorpina was still in her scorpion monster form led the Rangers to believe that Harry's theory about his spell outlasting Rita's could be right.

"You won't be getting away that easily, Power Rangers." Tommy's voice shouted across the thirty or so feet between the two groups. "You will be destroyed this day, all for the glory of Empress Rita!"

"Oh great," Kimberly moaned, taking a shaky fighting stance alongside her teammates. "Just what we needed: more bad guys…"

"I hope Zordon sent us here for a reason," Trini near growled as she glared at Rita's forces behind her helmet. "Because this is starting to look really bad. We were having enough trouble just facing Tommy."

A crack split the air once more, though this time it was the familiar crack of apparition as Harry appeared just in front of the Rangers dressed in his conjured black cloak once again, though with the hood down this time. "Come on now, guys. Give the old guy a little credit. Of course there's a plan here."

The group's shout of, "HARRY!" only barely surpassed Goldar's furious roar from across the clearing and only because of Harry's proximity.

"MAGELING!" the simian roared in fury, only Scorpina's claw hand clamped around his arm stopped him from charging in a blind rage. "YOU DARE SHOW YOURSELF AFTER WHAT YOU'VE DONE TO ME! WHAT YOU DID TO SCORPINA! I WILL TAKE GREAT PLEASURE IN DESTROYING YOU PERSONALLY!"

Harry barely turned toward Rita's forces before calling back. "I believe I've said it before, Goldar: greater men than you have threatened me like that, and I'm still here."

"And how do you intend to fight against our army?" Goldar seemed to have calmed down slightly by this point. "I notice you have yet to draw your focus, Mageling. Surely you don't intend to fight without it as you did after our first encounter."

"Oh, no worries there, Goldar." Harry smirked, waving his hand airily in the simian's direction before deliberately turning back toward the Rangers. "That wand burned out when I shrank you and Scorpina."

"Harry!" Jason snapped. "Why would you tell him that?"

"Yes, why would you give up a potential tactical advantage so superfluously?" Billy queried immediately after.

"And what are you doing out here anyway?" Kimberly demanded, sounding rather angry with him as well.

Seeing Zack and Trini weren't saying anything, either to decry him further or in his defense, Harry shot them a smile. "Relax, guys. I wouldn't be here if I wasn't prepared. Besides, I already told you there's a plan…"

Almost casually, Harry flipped the object in his right hand into the air, letting the sunlight glint off of its golden surface as it spun before catching it once more.

"Harry…" Trini said, seemingly short of breath. "Is that a…"

"ANOTHER POWER COIN!" Goldar was back to shouting his comments again. "HOW DO YOU HAVE ANOTHER POWER COIN!? THERE WEREN'T SUPPOSED TO BE MORE THAN SIX!"

Harry turned back toward the now nervously shifting horde, although in all honesty it was rather impossible to tell if the putties were nervous or just being their normal, twitchy selves. "Things change Goldar. Especially when a dimensional traveling wizard is involved. When you and Rita stole my Elder Wand from me, you changed the rules. Because of that, we were able to make a deal and change a few things of our own. But enough of that…" Harry flipped the coin one more time before catching it and idly rubbing his thumb across the embossed image on its face. After a moment of silence, Harry snapped his head back up and stared Goldar down once more. "For now, it's time to POWER UP!"

With his victorious shout, influenced more than a little by the Grid much to his chagrin, Harry raised his right hand, holding the coin between his thumb and forefinger. Bringing his left palm up to the face of the coin, Harry concentrated his magic into the small disk before slowly pulling his left hand away. As Rita's forces and the Power Rangers all watched, Harry's Power Coin lit up with a bright golden light as it stretched out to follow his palm while the other end stayed firm between his fingers.

Mere moments after he began, Harry pulled his left hand free from the tip of the now eleven inch long rod that had once been his Power Coin. One end of it was much narrower than the other with a gradual slope up to a clearly defined handle where he shifted the grip of his right hand. With a slight grunt, Harry thrust his golden wand diagonally up and toward Rita's forces, the sunlight once more glinting off of it, though this time highlighting three parallel bars that extended from each side of the narrow end, starting a quarter inch or so from the tip and with the center bar sticking out a little further than the other two.

He was entirely unprepared for the massive shower of sparks that shot forth from the tip of his wand as the construct of magic made from a fusion of the Grid's power, Harry's own magic, and the magic of two of the three Deathly Hallows bonded to its new user, feeling as good as his old holly and phoenix feather ever had. He was even more unprepared for the random explosions that went off some distance behind him, though being held firmly in the thrall of the Morphing Grid's Power and guidance, he didn't even flinch.

The same could not be said for everyone though.

The shockwave of the explosion washed over the Rangers with relatively little reaction, though they could have been paralyzed from shock or held within the Grid's Power as well so it wasn't too surprising. When the shockwave passed Harry, with his cloak flapping dramatically in the wind as it did, it picked up speed, kicking up a wall of dust and debris before slamming into Goldar, Scorpina, and Tommy. The three leaders were staggered slightly but when it washed over the army of putty patrollers behind them, a great many of them were knocked to the ground.

"Well…" Harry mumbled as he relaxed his stance and brought his new wand to his side. "That felt… unnecessary…"

"Is that another wand?" Kimberly asked, stepping up next to Harry and studying the focus in his hand.

"And it was that Power Coin you had a second ago, wasn't it?" Zack asked, stepping up on her other side, his excitement tinting his voice. "It changed just like ours do when we're piloting our Zords!"

Harry shrugged as he turned his attention back to Rita's recovering forces. "I don't know anything about that, but yes, this wand is the direct result of my little trip through the Grid to find Zordon. I understand you guys were having a bit of trouble while I was gone."

"That is an extreme understatement…" Billy said, putting a hand to his helmeted head.

"How much of a difference will that thing make," Jason spoke, his voice firm and demanding as he stepped up on Harry's free side. "Do you have any thoughts on how to get us out of this?"

Harry nodded firmly. "Zordon is working on a way to break Rita's containment spell and free the Zords before the Dragonzord gets here. In the meantime, I was instructed to help stall for time."

"ENOUGH!" Goldar's shout echoed across the clearing as he grew tired of waiting. "I will not stand here and watch you pathetic Power Brats talk amongst yourselves any longer! Prepare to die!" With more unnecessary flourishes, Goldar brought his hand up to his face briefly before flinging it back down to his side, twin beams of energy lancing from his eyes and right toward Harry.

To his credit, Harry didn't even flinch. This was partially because of the minor influence the Grid still had on him. The Power was pulsing within his being, filling him with confidence and keeping his head clear which let him draw on his training from his own world, as well as a flare for the dramatic that the Power brought with it, more easily than ever before.

With a flick of his new wand and a pulse of his magic, the ground before Harry and the Rangers cracked before a section of stone shot straight up at the last possible instant, forming a ten foot high wall that Goldar's attack slammed into with a massive explosion. When the smoke cleared, the Rangers were left confused while Rita's forces were enraged on top of that. There were multiple chunks of stone, clearly the remains of Harry's wall, just floating in midair.

"I seriously hope you have something better than that, Goldar." Harry taunted as the last few Rangers stepped up to join the line on either side of him. "But for now, it's my turn." With another flick of his wand, Harry transfigured the floating stones into metal spears that then flipped in the air to face the pointed end toward the assembled army.

Harry was just able to witness Goldar's blue face appear to pale slightly before giving his wand a dramatic swish, simultaneously banishing the spears forward. Goldar, Scorpina, and Tommy leapt into the air, easily clearing the cloud of pointy death heading their way, but the same could not be said for the putties behind them. In mere moments, the army of putties that had to have been at least fifty strong was cut down to a mere handful with the rest having been skewered or sliced to pieces by the cloud of transfigured spears.

And then the spears exploded.

Harry flinched slightly before glancing down at his wand in exasperation. "Alright, now I know that _that_ was unnecessary."

As the smoke cleared once more, Goldar, Scorpina, and Tommy regrouped in front of the crater that had once been their army of putty patrollers. In the very center of the burnt section of earth, a lone figure stood from a crouch. The single remaining putty glanced around at the remains of its brethren before letting out a panicked gurgle/mumbling sound and turning on his heel. The construct was so eager to escape that it didn't even let tripping over its former comrades' pieces slow it down, occasionally keeping its momentum on all fours as it struggled back to its feet. It wasn't until the grey figure was halfway through scaling the near vertical cliff wall that had been to their backs that Goldar's optic blast vaporized it.

"COWARD!" the monster roared before turning back to the Rangers. "No matter, we don't need the putties to deal with the likes of you, Power Rangers!"

"Yes, of course, Goldar," Harry taunted as he raised his wand to a ready position once more. "Because you guys have had such a _great_ track record so far."

Goldar's response came in the form of a roar as he charged, his sword held out before him and with Scorpina and Tommy flanking him to each side.

As the Rangers charged forward to meet them, Harry prepared himself once more to play a support role. While it was fun to rile up Goldar when he had the chance, without the protections provided by the Rangers' suits it still wasn't a smart idea to get involved in a melee, new wand or not.

With a quick flick of his wand, a jet of light flew forward, impacting Goldar's sword just as he brought it over his head to strike the approaching Jason. Much to Harry's private amusement, the blade of the weapon began shrinking. As the unaware monster brought his weapon down, the now six inch blade passed well short of the Ranger, allowing Jason to make his own attack with his Power Sword, sending Goldar flying backward in a shower of sparks.

Turning his attention to where Zack and Trini were fighting against Scorpina, Harry watched calmly as the two Rangers alternated dodging in and out of the monstrous woman's range, attacking with their respective weapons before moving away as the other struck her. It seemed that Scorpina's current speed wasn't enough to keep up with the far more nimble Rangers, most likely a consequence of being stuck in her giant form for the time being. More power, but less speed worked well on fighting giant, clunky machines or destroying large amounts of real estate, but was rather less effective on agile martial artists.

Seeing that they had their battle well in hand, Harry turned to the third skirmish, where Kimberly and Billy were facing off against the Green Ranger. Here, things were going more as he had expected. Tommy had been able to fight off the entirety of the team by himself, so the Blue and Pink Rangers alone stood no chance. Still, each time he knocked them down, which happened often, they stood right back up and resumed their assault.

Scowling, Harry twisted in place, apparating behind Tommy much like in their earlier battle, and gave his wand a swish before jabbing it in his direction. The ground started to rumble before a chain burst forth in a shower of stone, catching Tommy off guard and wrapping around his right wrist just before he could bring the Sword of Darkness down across Billy once more.

For his part, Tommy only froze for a moment. When the chain pulled taught, yanking his arm out to his side and making him stumble slightly, he seemed to come to his senses long enough to figure out what was happening. When a second chain erupted from the earth on his left side and aiming for that arm, he spun to his right, dodging the new chain neatly, before swiping at it with his shorter weapon, slicing through the transfigured chain like a hot knife through butter. As that chain broke apart, Tommy let out a shout of exertion as he brought his weapon down across the other chain, destroying it just as easily and freeing himself just in time to roll out of the way of a few blasts from Billy and Kimberly's blade blasters.

Having expected that outcome, Harry just began his assault anew. Moving his focus fluidly, and once more marveling at how well it channeled his magic, Harry started casting a near constant stream of offensive hindering spells. He would have liked to use something more destructive, but since Billy and Kimberly were rather close to his target and they _were_ looking to free Tommy from Rita's spell without ending his life at the same time, body binds and stunners it was.

The battle was furious. The Green Ranger was a non-stop blur of movement as he avoided or deflected each of Harry's spells, the occasional shot from Kimberly's blade blaster, and eventually all of Billy's attacks with his Power Lance.

Finally, his concentration was shot when Jason's voice rang out. "Harry! Behind!"

Spinning in place, Harry caught sight of Goldar coming toward him from a flying leap with one fist drawn back, apparently having discarded his shrunken weapon and with a wicked smirk on his face.

"I have you now Mageling!"

Harry merely raised an eyebrow before jabbing his wand forward. " _Arresto Momentum!_ "

He could only watch as Goldar's eyes widened when he came to an abrupt stop in midair. It was almost comical how the monster began flailing about in panic while Harry merely watched.

With a smirk of his own, Harry pointed his wand at Goldar. "Reducto!"

The blasting curse lanced toward the immobile monster, but was intercepted at the last moment by the bulky form of Scorpina. "I think not, little mage!" Her voice was quite deep and the sheer volume made Harry wince slightly. On top of that, Harry's spell did little to no damage to her, most likely due to the larger power he had earlier assumed she possessed in her current form.

"Well Bugger…" Harry groaned just before Scorpina's large claw-hand backhand slammed into his torso, sending him flying back through the air. His mind blanked out for a moment as he flew, vaguely noticing as Goldar was pulled down to the ground by Scorpina before the two began charging toward Tommy's battle.

Then Harry's travel was interrupted with a short scream as he landed on another body. It took only a moment for Harry to return to his senses and find himself in a tangle of arms and legs. Those that didn't belong to him were clad in yellow.

Rolling off of the downed Trini, Harry slowly pulled himself to his feet before offering her a hand while his other was wrapped around his aching torso where he had been struck. "That's two I owe you," he said with a small smile as she took his hand.

Their attention was drawn by a pair of small explosions as Goldar and Scorpina's respective attacks struck Billy and Kimberly, knocking them well away from Tommy as the three servants of Rita regrouped. Groaning slightly, Harry jogged after Trini as she and the other Rangers gathered around their downed companions and helped them up.

"Just face it Rangers," Tommy began taunting them as he stepped forward. "Even with the help of your pet mage, you cannot hope to stand against the power of Empress Rita."

"Tommy, don't do this!" Kimberly was pleading now, reaching toward him with one hand while her other was pressed to the chest of her still slightly smoking suit. "This isn't you! Rita is controlling you!"

"You have to fight it, man!" Jason shouted, stepping forward as he did so with a dramatic hand gesture of his own.

Harry just rolled his eyes as he cast a few first aid charms on himself to help dull his pain.

"I am now and forever more a servant of my empress!" Tommy shouted back, sounding rather angry now. "She has opened my eyes to true power and I will serve her loyally until my dying day."

"It's no use…" Zack growled. "Rita's spell is too strong. We can't get through to him this way."

"You are correct, Zackary," Zordon's voice sounded from each of their communicators. "Rita's spell has a powerful hold over Tommy's mind, but if you can destroy the Sword of Darkness, the spell will be broken."

The Rangers' elation at finally having an answer, the difficult of obtaining that answer momentarily ignored, was interrupted by another furious shout from Goldar. "Zordon?! He's back?! Impossible!"

Smirking slightly, Harry stepped up. "I'm afraid so, Goldar. And that would be my fault again."

"GRAAAAH! MAGELING!" Goldar roared, his voice suddenly booming out much louder than before.

Everyone froze, even Rita's servants, before a smirk came across Goldar's face as he began to grow before their very eyes. Moments later, Scorpina let out a victorious cackle of her own as she too began to grow.

Harry just smirked for a moment before he felt himself being grabbed and thrown over a Red shoulder as the Rangers leapt an easy fifty yards to escape the immediate proximity of the two monsters who were once more growing to gigantic proportions.

With a grunt, Harry once more found himself on his feet with Jason staring at him. "Why weren't you moving, Harry? It looks like your spell just wore off!"

Harry idly brushed his shirt down and resettled his robe before answering pleasantly. "Yes, it certainly does."

"And why don't you sound at all panicked about that?" Zack asked incredulously.

Harry shot the Black Ranger an amused smile. "Because my type of shrinking spell tends to have rather negative side effects on living beings once it wears off."

Billy was the first one to respond. "So the sudden increase in their overall mass would have a potentially negative effect on their physical being?"

Harry blinked before nodding. "If that means that they're going to be hurting in a moment, then yes, it will."

True to Harry's prediction, the victorious laughter of the two leering monsters, now back to their full giant height, was cut off almost simultaneously before they fell to their knees as pain wracked their bodies. "WHAT IS HAPPENING!?" Goldar roared as Scorpina found herself unable to do anything more than scream.

"You messed with the wrong kind of magic, Goldar!" Harry shouted back before flicking his wand twice in the direction of the two. The twin body-bind curses washed over the two monsters almost simultaneously and the effects were immediate and earth shaking. Goldar and Scorpina stiffened and their legs snapped together while their arms became locked to their sides. Moments after, they teetered ominously before falling to the earth with a massive crash. Scorpina fell backwards, but Goldar landed flat on his face and his growls of rage and pain were easy to make out even through his locked jaw. Before anyone could make another move, the two massive forms vanished in a flash of light, most likely getting recalled to Rita's palace after their defeat.

For his part, Harry felt an immediate wave of weakness wash over him and dropped to one knee. "Alright, note to self…" Harry mumbled. "Don't cast any more general effect spells on giant monsters. Especially not two of them one after the other."

He felt hands on his shoulders after a few moments when the Rangers were able to take their shocked attention off of the fallen monsters long enough to notice he was down as well. "Are you alright Harry?" Zack asked from his left side.

"What just happened?" Jason asked/demanded from his right.

When the other Rangers echoed his sentiments, although with significantly less demand from them, Harry groaned and pulled himself to his feet again. "The shrinking spell wore off and every part of their body started aching at once from the strain. Then I hit them with a body-bind curse, which was probably not a good idea as it took way more magic than I thought it would."

"So did you overexert yourself like when you shrank them?" Kimberly asked, once more concerned.

Harry shook his head. "I'm still conscious aren't I? Besides, I wasn't fighting against once of Rita's spells this time and the body-bind is a much simpler spell so it didn't take as much magic as that particular shrinking spell. It actually probably wouldn't have worked if they hadn't been in so much pain already. No, I just used too much magic in one go."

Any further questioning or explaining was cut short when Tommy landed twenty or so feet from them. "I don't know what you did to defeat Goldar and Scorpina, but it looks like it pretty much finished you off, Mageling. And we already know that the Rangers can't defeat me. This battle is already over!"

With another groan, Harry straightened himself and shook off Zack's supporting hands. He couldn't afford to show weakness now. With an internal glance, Harry winced at the state of his magical reserves. After his initial barrage of spells and the two full body binds he was down to around a quarter of his total magic, and eighth of what he used to have. Certainly not the most ideal situation to go into a fight against the Green Ranger with, but he would have to work with it as best he could.

Then, the ground began shaking.

With a growing feeling of dread, Harry looked around wildly with the Rangers only for Billy to cry out and point off to their right, back toward the city. It was a wide-eyed Harry who saw the Dragonzord stomping its way toward them.

"Oh no!" Trini shouted out. "It's the Dragonzord!"

"Shit!" Jason growled, his fist once more clenched in anger. "Harry, I don't suppose you have any ideas here, do you?"

Harry frowned slightly. "Maybe… but I don't know how-"

Harry was cut off by Tommy's faux-villainous laughter. "And now my Dragonzord has arrived! You are through, Power Rangers."

"Harry?" Kimberly asked, sending a wary and saddened glance toward Tommy. "You said you might have a plan."

"Yeah, but I don't-"

Harry was once more cut off, but this time by Zordon's voice coming from his communicator. "Harry. We are ready, but I will need some additional help on your end."

Harry's eyes widened before he lifted his communicator. "I don't know how much help I'll be Zordon. I pretty much wiped myself out taking down Goldar and Scorpina."

"There is another way, Harry, and you know it."

Harry sighed. "Yeah, that was kind of already my plan. I was just hoping to put it off for a bit longer."

There was humor once more in Zordon's voice as he responded. "As I said before, Harry, sacrifices for the safety of the galaxy."

"Yeah, yeah…" Harry groaned before lowering his communicator and glaring up at Tommy.

The Green Ranger merely stood there for a moment, smugness practically emanating from him. "Are you done with your last ditch planning session? Surely you know that nothing you can do will allow you to defeat my almighty Dragonzord!" Tommy's comment was echoed by the massive machine that had just stepped fully into the valley, although still quite some distance away, as it let out a mechanical roar that sent a chill down Harry's spine.

"And now, you're finished!" Tommy called out before lifting the guard of his dagger to the lips of his helmet. What happened next both confused and fascinated Harry. The dagger started playing music. The Ranger's hand began working a few keys on the handle of the weapon and it letting out a sound that was rather reminiscent of a group of trumpets.

The effect it had was much less fascinating.

The Dragonzord immediately let out another roar, attracting the Ranger's attention to the flashing lights on its chest as it whipped its left arm out and pointed it straight toward them. It was difficult to tell what was happening from their distance, but the telltale whistling sound and trails of smoke that started getting closer mere moments later was enough warning for Harry to whip his wand up and surround himself and the Rangers in a Protego.

The missiles that the Dragonzord launched impacted with Harry's shield and nearly sent him to his knees once more. Even as the Rangers stared at him in what he could only assume was awe as he couldn't see their faces, the smoke cleared around them and the Green Ranger staggered back a step.

"HOW! How did you do that?!" He demanded, recovering quickly from his surprise. "How are you still alive?!"

Harry took a deep breath before reluctantly reaching down deep and embracing the mote of Power within him once again, forcing himself to relax enough for the grid to give him another set of instructions. With a grim smile, Harry stepped up to the front of the group, the rest of the Rangers spreading themselves behind him in a "V" formation as he felt the Power begin influencing them as well.

Ever the showman, that Morphing Grid…

"You should know by now, Tommy, that you should never underestimate a magic user, me least of all." Harry stated calmly, letting the Power flowing through him bolster his own flagging strength and confidence. "You said that this battle is already over, but I can assure you that it is far from it."

"What are you talking about?!" Tommy demanded, appearing slightly off balance after Harry's declaration. "There is nothing more you can do. I have already proven able to defeat you all myself and with the Dragonzord by my side and without your Zords, you cannot possibly hope to stand against me!"

Harry let out another deep breath before locking his gaze on Tommy's visor and shifting his stance. Turning his body to the left, Harry lifted his right arm, his wand held tightly in his hand and pointed toward Tommy. His left hand was brought up, palm out, near his left shoulder and parallel with the ground. He slid his feet around for a moment before bending his knees slightly and settling into a combat dueling stance he had been taught for someone with the capability of using wandless magic alongside a wand. His left hand was available for whatever wandless spells he needed, usually shields and other defensive spells, while the majority of his offensive magics would come from the wand. But his purpose wasn't a magical duel this time.

"It's rather simple, Tommy." Harry said, allowing his confidence to shine through his eyes and in his voice even as he pulled his Morphing Grid Power to the surface, throwing the evil Ranger off even more as his form lit up with a dark purple aura. "You say everything is over. I say… It's Morphin' Time!"

-MR-

Thanks for reading and don't forget to review,

Tenstar12


	18. Chapter 18

Magi Ranger

By: Tenstar12

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or Power Rangers.

 **Chapter 18, In Which It's Morphin' Time! (Finally)**

Harry's announcement made everyone freeze. The Rangers behind him were standing firm in the formation that they had been guided to by the Grid while Tommy stood dumbfounded in front of the group. This gave Harry the time to mentally gather himself and relax enough to give in to the Power.

Almost without thinking about it, Harry gave his wand a small twitch and channeled the Grid Power now flowing through him into it until the tip lit up with a bright, golden light that shone like a beacon through his dark purple aura. Then, with a smirk on his lips, Harry began moving his wand.

He started with a short movement to the right, leaving a trail of golden fire in the wand's wake much like Voldemort's diary Horcrux had back in Harry's second year. Once the line stretched for six inches or so, he stopped and reversed direction, now going back to his left and up at an angle. Once he reached a spot over his starting point, Harry brought his wand back down and to the left until he was even with his original line and then brought the wand back over to meet his starting point.

Then, moving steadily, Harry drew a circle inside the triangle he had already fashioned.

Finally, with a swift jerk, he pulled his wand upward, bisecting the two shapes vertically and completing the symbol of the Deathly Hallows.

Flipping his wand in his hand so it now rested along the inside of his forearm, Harry lifted his right foot and pivoted back on his left until he was standing squarely in front of the fiery symbol before him. Then, he brought his hands up over his head, crossed at the wrists before pulling them back down to his sides with his fists clenched and a victorious shout as he threw his head back. "MAGI RANGER, POWER UP!"

Tommy and the Rangers could only look on as the symbol before Harry flashed brightly before flying towards the mage and slamming into the center of his chest, engulfing him in a bright light that swallowed up his aura. Just as quickly as it appeared, the light began fading out. It started with his feet which were revealed to now be clad in a pair of white boots with a black stripe around the tops. These boots gave way to purple pants with another black stripe up the outside leading up to a belt of the same color.

From his clenched fists, the light faded to reveal gloves with the same white and black pattern as his boots and the sleeves of his new suit again followed the same pattern as his pants, the black stripe traveling up the tops of his arms and over his shoulders. The light around his torso gathered into a single point that burst into random motes of light to expose a golden disk centered on his chest that had the symbol of the Deathly Hallows etched into it. The black stripes from his arms and legs stretched across his torso to meet around the larger version of his Power Coin, forming a ring of black around it in a field of purple.

Finally, Harry brought his head back down, sending a confident look toward Tommy before a purple helmet formed over his face, showing the same stylized mouth as the other Ranger helmets with a simple horizontal black oval as a visor.

In yet another burst of light, a silvery-white cloak formed around his shoulders, looking more like a long, open vest that reached just below his knees in the back with a short collar and the Deathly Hallows symbol stitched onto the back in black. Then the coin on his chest let out one final burst of light, this one traveling along the black stripes centered on it, leaving a chain of glowing silver runes in its wake. When this light faded, the black stripes now had runes running through them all over his body as well as glowing softly around the oval on his helmet and less visibly on the edges of his cloak.

Then Harry felt the Grid take full control of his body and mentally cringed.

"Just when you think you have us beaten…" Zack started, going through a few gesticulations before settling into a fighting stance on the far right of their formation.

"That's when we'll come back hitting you twice as hard!" Billy continued from Harry's far left, making his own moves before taking a stance.

"The forces of darkness will never beat those of the light!" Trini said from next to Zack, going through her motions.

"No matter what Rita tries, we will always prevail in the end!" Kimberly said, mirroring Trini from her spot next to Harry.

"So if you think we're just going to sit back and let you win…" Jason shouted from Harry's immediate right, taking a fighting stance with his back to Harry.

Then Harry felt himself start to move and speak, much to his own growing internal horror. "Then you have another thing coming." Harry felt himself move to mirror Jason, standing near back to back with the Red Ranger and staring at Tommy from beneath his helmet. "Because we're the-"

"POWER RANGERS!" The last was shouted by all six at once and was immediately followed by a massive explosion behind them that managed to shock Tommy into stumbling backward.

The Grid's total control left him in a rush, leaving Harry feeling rather like a puppet with his strings cut. The other Rangers apparently didn't feel anything of the sort as Jason quickly sprang toward the slightly off balance Green Ranger. "Let's do it guys!"

With a simultaneous cry of "RIGHT!" the other four Rangers dashed off after their crimson clad leader, leaving Harry to straighten himself slowly.

Glancing down at his gloved hands and taking a moment to look over his now spandex clad body, Harry shook his head slightly and gave off a self-depreciating laugh. "I have no idea what I'm doing…"

"You will be fine Harry." Zordon's voice emanated from his left wrist where his communicator still rested beneath his new suit. "When the time comes for you to fully do battle, I know you will make us all proud."

"You make it sound like I'm not supposed to be helping the other Rangers with Tommy…" Harry said slowly, internally thankful that he wouldn't be charging in like the others did. "So what's the plan?"

"For now Harry, you lack the proper training to be of any real help to the others. Even with the Morphing Grid helping guide you in battle, without any real martial arts experience you would be more of a hindrance to the others against the Green Ranger." Zordon's voice was calm and matter-of-fact even as he neatly poked a hole in whatever ego Harry had been able to form. "Your time would be better served playing to your strengths. I need you to go to the spot where Rita trapped the Megazord and help me to free it before Tommy can call the Dragonzord into battle. If we are not quick enough, the other Rangers won't stand a chance."

Feeling like he was on more familiar turf, Harry gave a firm nod. "Alright Zordon, just point me in the right direction and I'll do what I can."

"The focal point of Rita's containment spell is seventy-five yards to your left. I suspect Rita will try something to stop you so you must be careful."

With a nod, Harry turned and started running in the direction Zordon had indicated. Almost immediately, Harry noticed the extreme ease with which he was moving. Despite his less than healthy childhood, Harry had never been supremely out of shape, he left that designation to his uncle and cousin. Between his time playing Quidditch at Hogwarts and the physical portion of his training for the war, he had managed to stay fairly fit. Now it was as if morphing had taken his previous physical capabilities and doubled them. It was a feeling that was both offsetting and comforting all at once.

Harry's musing was interrupted as he crested a small rise in the earth and caught sight of what looked like a long line of recently disturbed earth. It certainly fit the bill for a location where the ground had been split open to trap a gigantic machine.

Then he heard the putties.

It was only their telltale noise and a burst of Grid driven instincts that sent Harry into a dive before rolling back to his feet. Turning quickly, Harry faced the trio of confused clay constructs, the nearest of which was climbing back to its feet after Harry had dodged its flying kick.

"You know," Harry mused, feeling a thread of Power flowing through him and guiding him to a loose fighting stance. "I was really hoping that I had blasted all of you guys already, but I guess Rita put up a rush order…"

The three putties made no verbal response, at least not one he could understand, but they didn't hesitate to charge him as soon as the first had regained its feet. They were around ten feet away so the distance was covered in mere moments before Harry found himself with a grey fist flying toward his helmeted face.

The next few seconds were almost overwhelming for him.

Harry felt his body twist almost of its own accord as the Power flared up within him, pulling his head just out of the path of the putty's attack. He completed the turn, facing his back toward the creature as his arms came up, grabbing the arm that was now over his shoulder. With a heave, Harry pulled forward, flipping the putty over his shoulder and following it down to the ground, landing solidly on its torso with a grunt and rolling back up to his feet before spinning once more to face the remaining two upright hostiles in another fighting stance.

As the two remaining putties got within striking distance, Harry hopped in place, bringing his two feet together before leaping into the air. In midair, Harry kicked his legs out, each foot impacting solidly with the inside shoulder of the two putties. Pushing off of them, Harry managed to not only propel himself back into the air and safely away from them, but also shoving the two putties down into an ungraceful heap atop the first while he almost casually flipped once before landing in an easy crouch.

In the back of his mind, Harry was baffled. How was he doing these crazy acrobatics? Each time he moved, he felt the Power pulsing through him, giving him a burst of energy, but was it really guiding him that much?

His distraction and pondering only gave the putties time to recover and for one to tackle him solidly to the ground. Harry didn't feel much impact when he hit the ground, but he certainly felt the first blow when the putty landed a solid cross punch to his head, accompanied by a shower of sparks.

Harry kicked out, trying to buck the construct off of him, but the other two dove forward, one pinning his legs to the ground and the other lying on his left arm. And so Harry found himself being pummeled by a putty patroller, the pain of the blows was thankfully muted, but he still felt the impact from the hits and a discomforting feeling of growing weakness as they continued raining down.

As Harry struggled to escape the surprisingly strong grip of the clay constructs while simultaneously protecting himself as best he could with his free arm, he couldn't help but wonder where his sudden Grid-empowered fighting skill had gone. While confused, Harry had been feeling rather good about himself after the short exchange. He had been going so long hearing from Zordon and the other Rangers how he had no ability to fight hand to hand, only to have such success in his first encounter while morphed. It was an ego boosting feeling which only made his current situation all that much more frustrating.

"Harry!" Zordon's voice called out from his communicator, muffled by the putty pinning him. "You must remember to play to your strengths! Your morph is based in your own magical power. If you take enough damage to fall out of morph you will find yourself weakened to the point you will be unable to defend yourself."

Well, that certainly didn't sound good. But Zordon had a point. As much as it galled him, Harry had a great deal of practice in putting his own ego aside and doing things the right way rather than how he would have preferred. It was part of learning to let others help him in the war when he would have rather taken it all upon himself in order to spare others the pain and risk.

Playing to his strengths was rather easy to figure out as well, though Harry did have to wonder why Zordon felt the need to be cryptic instead of straight up telling him to curse the heck out of the putties. In any case, with his new wand having vanished when he morphed, he would have to fall back on his wandless magic.

Taking advantage of a brief pause in the continuous rain of strikes to his head and chest, Harry placed his right hand on the chest of the putty straddling him. The creature froze, looking down at him with a confused cock of its head. "Sorry, mate," Harry smirked as he pulled his magic up and through his right arm, noting that his magic reserves were much lower than he liked. "But I think it's time for you guys to back off. _Reducto_!"

Harry almost immediately cursed himself internally for his choice of spell. He knew that using a purely and devastatingly offensive spell like the blasting curse wandlessly was a sure-fire way to injure yourself. He had just become so used to using a wand in his last several battles and during the war before that that his short stint fighting purely wandlessly didn't really stick with him.

Then Harry realized, as the putty patroller went flying away from him with a hole in its chest, that there was absolutely no pain to be had. In fact, as Harry took a moment to stare dazedly at the slightly scorched palm of his white glove, other than that small scorch mark and a few sparks there had been no measurable negative effect on him when he cast the destructive spell wandlessly.

As the two surviving putties remained frozen after their companion's demise, Harry felt another smirk stretch across his face and turned his head to face them. "It's a whole new game now," he said, turning his hand to once more face away from him, this time toward the putty on his left arm. " _Flippendo_!"

The knockback jinx threw the putty patroller off of him and shocked the other one long enough for another jinx to remove him the same way. Harry managed to climb back to his feet just in time to drop to his knees, this time to dodge a wild punch from one of the already recovered putties. The next several moments were simply Harry relying on his own instincts, the Grid's guidance still absent, as he dodged rapid-fire attacks from first one and then both of the remaining putties. Most of this time was spent rolling across the ground and scrambling away as each time he regained his feet one of the putties would make an attack that would force him down again. The constructs, for all their lack of intelligence, were easily keeping the inexperienced Ranger on his back foot. Worse still, as low as his magic was after taking the pummeling earlier, it took too long for him to pull up enough magic to cast wandlessly, so his only real advantage wasn't even a factor.

Then Zordon once more spoke up. "Harry, the others are running out of time! You must relax. Give in to the grid and let it guide you through this battle. It is the only way to victory!"

"Easier said than done, Zordon!" Harry shouted as he once more rolled away from a stomp from one putty, only to get caught across the chest by a kick from the other as he tried to stance once more, falling back with a grunt in a shower of sparks.

"Harry," Zordon spoke calmly, most likely in an attempt to settle the mage's rattled nerves. "I know that what I am asking of you is difficult for you to do, but from what you have mentioned of yourself in the past I know that you are a person who always pulls things out in the end. You need to do that now. Embrace the Power that is within you. Give in to the Grid for this one battle so that you and the others can live on to fight another day when you will be more prepared to fight on your own. Our sensors in the Command Center are telling us that your magic is frighteningly low now. And if this keeps up, the others will surely fall as well."

Harry grit his teeth as he climbed to his feet again. The putties had paused in their assault and were standing together a short distance away, making jerking feints in his direction as they glared at him. Then Harry felt the Power building in the back of his mind and pressing on his Occlumency shields as he heard Zordon speak once more. "Please Harry, trust in the Power and trust that it will not harm you. The battle you are involved in now is very different than any you have ever fought in your life. This Power you have been granted is equally different to anything you have used before. I know that the new can be frightening and using the Power goes against everything you were taught about magic in your world, but you must trust me. This is your first practical lesson in using the Grid's Power. Relax and let it flow through you. This is truly the only way you will be able to use this Power until you gain your own grasp of it and its capabilities. If you overthink, you will fail."

Harry blinked. It was odd to hear someone speak of something as esoteric as a source of magic in such a way, but Zordon had a point. The Grid was much different than his own magic. The thought of someone at Hogwarts using magic to create anything like the Rangers' Powers and Zords was so absurd as to be nearly laughable. It was time to face facts: Zordon was right and nothing he knew of magic would help him here.

Snapping back to reality, Harry saw the two putties exchange a glance before looking back toward him and moving to each side. It would appear that their taunting was done and they were preparing to attack once more, this time from either side. It was definitely not something he was prepared to deal with on his own and the others were counting on him so he couldn't just teleport out.

"Well…" Harry mumbled to himself. "Gryffindors charge ahead."

Harry dropped his Occlumency shields completely. Initially, he panicked much as he had when he first accessed his new Power in the Command Center, but with some knowledge of what to expect, he was able to force his panic down with only minor difficulty. This time, the Power didn't come in a trickle as it had before. All at once Harry felt as his mind and body, his entire being at the same instant, was flooded with the Power of the Morphing Grid and he began moving.

The two putties were standing some distance apart now, each of the three of them standing near equidistant from the other two. Harry charged the one on his right in a sudden burst of speed, landing a quick one-two punch to the creature before either of them had a chance to react. With a quick spin, Harry sent the stunned putty to the ground with a tornado kick to the side of its head before spinning to face the other one.

The second putty was now charging him flat out. Around five feet away, it took a flying leap and attempted to dropkick him. It was almost laughably easy for Harry to sidestep the attack, letting the putty fly past him and land atop its comrade, once more knocking it into the dust.

" **I think, young Harry, that it is time to show you what your new Power is capable of…** "

Harry blinked in surprise at hearing the voice of the Grid. It made sense that the consciousness was the one controlling/guiding him in the fight, but he hadn't necessarily expected to hear from it again.

" **It was a bit of a project to design and create what I have given you, but I think you will be pleased with the outcome… even if you dislike the 'random hand waving' you must go through to use it** "

Harry bit back a groan as he once more hopped in place before leaping into the air, flipping and landing around twenty feet away from the putties who were still entangled with each other. Turning to face them once more, Harry waved his right arm over his head in a long sweeping movement before making a fist as if grasping something. "I call upon the power of the Magi Staff!" It was a highly unoriginal name, Harry mused to himself, but it was to be expected when the other Rangers all had weapons that were named similarly.

He felt a brief buildup of magic before there was suddenly a weight in his upheld hand that hadn't been there a moment before. With a victorious cry, Harry jerked his arm down to his side, feeling resistance as the butt of his new staff hit the ground next to him.

The metallic silver staff he held was as long as he was tall. It had an incredibly simple design all told. Merely an undetailed shaft with a rounded cap at the bottom and the same three perpendicular bars as he had observed at the tip of his wand at the top. The only difference between his staff and his wand, other than size and lack of the clearly defined handle, was the presence of another representation of his Power Coin, the etched symbol of the Deathly Hallows glowing brightly, situated at the center of the middle bar and extending far enough to cut slightly into the top and bottom ones.

With the Magi Staff now in hand, Harry felt the Grid's voice once more resonate within him. " **This, Harry, is your focus while morphed. With this staff, you will be able to make use of Zordon's future lessons in your battles. Your own magic is highly structured and has a much greater versatility than most of what has been achieved by users of the Power and it is my hope that this fusion of the two types of magic will allow you to find a balance of your own. The strength of the Power combined with the control and versatility of your own magics. But that is a topic for Zordon and yourself to discuss another time. For now, I shall deal with these two creations of darkness and allow you to continue with your mission.** "

The two putties, having regained their feet, were watching Harry warily now. Harry felt the build-up of Power in his staff as he moved again, spinning the weapon around him briefly before pointing the top toward the two in a two-handed grip, his body turned sideways with his right foot forward similar to his dueling/morphing stance. The magic within the staff began moving toward the top end, focusing into a now visible ball of purple energy that pulsed ominously as it grew to the size of a basketball.

Finally, Harry felt a smirk stretch across his face. "It was nice playing with you two, but I have other things to take care of." With a short kiai, which threw Harry off all on its own, Harry thrust the staff forward, sending the now sparking orb of magic flying toward the two shocked putties. The orb impacted with the rightmost one and immediately grew to engulf the pair before exploding violently. Meanwhile, Harry idly turned away from them, spinning the staff slowly overhead as he did before bringing it down to the earth once more just as the shockwave from the explosion broke over him, sending his cloak flapping in the wind. All in all, he was convinced it looked rather dramatic.

The grid spoke to him once more, amusement and satisfaction laced through the tone. " **Yes, that shall do for now. Incomplete as it is, it is still an effective finisher. Farewell for now, young Harry, and remember: the Power protects you now, but you must learn to let it. If you can manage that, then I know that the balance is in good hands.** "

Harry felt the presence of the grid fade from his consciousness. Not enough that he would be completely without guidance if he absolutely needed it, but not so much that he would be completely taken over without warning. Then Harry felt the near complete lethargy that only affected one whose magic was at drastically low levels. It seemed as though the Grid had used more of Harry's own magic while finishing off those putties than Harry would have liked. As it was, he would be lucky to get off a few offensive spells without collapsing again, much less free the other Rangers' Zords.

With an internal shrug and a prayer that Zordon had a plan, Harry turned and walked once more to the site of the Megazord's imprisonment, leaning more than a little bit on the Magi Staff. "Well…" he mused aloud as he looked upon the long stretch of disturbed earth before him. "It is certainly a large bit of upturned dirt…" With a sigh, Harry activated his communicator. "A bit of help would be appreciated, Zordon. As I'm sure you already know, I am almost completely on empty here. How am I supposed to free the Zords myself?"

Zordon responded immediately, his urgency apparent. "You will have to once more cede control of yourself, Harry. This time to my own influence. After that battle, your own power is not great enough to free the Zords alone, so I shall guide you and supply my own energies to help break through Rita's spell."

Harry sighed as he idly tapped the butt of his staff in the somewhat loose dirt before him. "Great… Well, guide away."

"Relax, Harry." Zordon answered, once more with humor in his voice. "And remember, half of using the Grid's Power is showmanship at times."

Harry felt a foreign presence once more manifest itself in his consciousness, though this time he recognized the now familiar feel of Zordon and gave way almost immediately. Somehow, in the back of his mind he almost felt Moody chastising him for ceding control of himself so easily, but with his magic as low as it was, Harry doubted he could have resisted even if he had wanted to.

His body once more moving on autopilot, Harry spun the Magi Staff around him a few times, passing it from one hand to the other as the Power's magical energies lit up the area around him. Finally, he brought the staff over his head and slammed the bottom end into the loose earth before him with a savage shout, releasing all the Morphing Grid energies he and Zordon (mostly Zordon) had built up at once.

Zordon once more relinquished control of Harry's body and the mage almost immediately slumped. Only his tight grip on his staff kept him upright, though even that was a close thing and only possibly because it seemed to be anchored into the ground by the magic it had just channeled. "Oh dear Merlin…" Harry panted. Reaching down within himself, Harry found the source of his problem. On top of his already low magical reserves, the mote of light that represented his access to the Power was nearly gone as well. And with the way he was feeling, all the acrobatics and heavy casting had him practically running on empty physically as well, despite morphing having improved his physical ability.

Then the ground started to shake.

As Harry watched, honestly more focused on remaining upright than the spectacle before him, as the ground split open. As the split grew wider, Harry watched with idle interest as several chunks of stone broke loose and fell down the growing crevasse. It wasn't until one stone hit something and let off a loud, metallic clang that Harry realized that the Megazord was rising up from the depths before him.

"Well done, Harry. Well done." Zordon's voice was laced with pride and satisfaction, along with no small amount of exhaustion himself, as it emanated from Harry's communicator. Harry didn't even bother to respond as he watched the towering machine float a few feet over the ground as the earth once more closed up under it before gently floating back down, making a small quake when it settled.

With the Megazord now freed and the split earth whole again, the Magi Staff was released from the grip of the spell. With the Staff now loose, Harry fell to the ground, his legs too weak to hold him upright without the Staff's solid support. It was an altogether uncomfortable feeling for Harry. He didn't feel tired, just too weak to do anything. Perhaps this was what Zordon had meant about him being unable to defend himself if he fell out of morph from taking too much damage. If his suit drew on his own power to protect him, taking a lot of damage would reduce his magic to levels similar to what he was feeling now. He certainly doubted he would be able to defend himself at this point, but at least he had the suit to prevent serious damage for at least a little while. Though if he was honest it was rather difficult to imagine feeling weaker than he was now, but what else could happen should he fall out of morph?

Harry perked up slightly when he heard the echoing sound of trumpet-like music coming from the direction where the other Rangers had been fighting Tommy. The tune was different than the first one he had heard, but the following mechanical roar from the previously idle Dragonzord showed that it had a similar effect.

"I have called the other Rangers to the Megazord, Harry." Zordon said after a moment. "While working together, the power of the Dinozords is much greater than that of the Dragonzord alone and without his Dragonzord, Tommy will be unable to stand against the others. You will be teleported back to the Command Center immediately to rest and recover. Well done Harry."

Harry caught sight of five streaks of light arcing up from the ground and into the Megazord next to him before he was engulfed in a deep purple aura that pulled him off the ground and away from the battle in an instant.

-MR-

Thanks for reading and don't forget to review,

Tenstar12


	19. Chapter 19

Magi Ranger

By: Tenstar12

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or Power Rangers.

 **Chapter 19, In Which Many Explanations Are To Be Had**

After returning to the Command Center, Harry almost immediately demorphed. The ensuing weakness he felt caused him to stumble into one of the consoles, only staying upright through its solid support. Upon Zordon's suggestion, Alpha brought out the chair from Harry's room, allowing the mage to idly handle his new wand/morpher while he sat and watched on the Viewing Globe as the Rangers absolutely demolished the Dragonzord with the help of their Megazord. Once it was down, Jason managed to overwhelm Tommy in one on one combat and used his Blade Blaster to destroy the Sword of Darkness, which Rita had tied her hypnotism spell into, thus freeing Tommy from her control.

At first Harry had been rather confused. How had Jason been able to take down the Green Ranger on his own when the entire team had failed before? The way Zordon explained it, the Dragonzord was both the greatest strength and greatest weakness of the Green Power Coin. Having a Zord of such great power, nearly on par with the strength of the Megazord, aligned with just one Ranger meant that it took more Power from that Ranger to call it into battle. By summoning the Dragonzord, Tommy had invested a portion of his own strength into it. As long as the Zord was around he felt no different, but with the machine down for the count, Tommy's own strength was very much reduced.

Rita undoubtedly knew of this weakness and so had held back, using the Zord to help speed her conquest once its only real competition was taken out of the running. With the return of Zordon and Harry's help, they were able to call the Megazord back into play and thereby thwart Rita's scheme. It brought Harry no little satisfaction knowing that he was rather central to this thwarting. Call him petty, but that woman had caused him no end of grief since he arrived in this dimension, so making such a heavy blow to her forces, one that was arguably enabled by him more than the Rangers, just made him feel good.

Once Tommy had been freed from Rita's spell and the other Rangers gathered and demorphed themselves, Harry was forced to endure a more than slightly cheesy scene of reconciliation and forgiveness. Tommy was rather horrified at what he had done while under Rita's control, but Jason and the others were more than up for the challenge of getting him over it, for the time being at least. Tommy's ready acceptance of Jason's offer to join them hit a cord within Harry, and he was more than a little convinced that the Green Ranger agreed more in an effort to help forgive himself for his evil deeds than any desire for friendship or camaraderie with the others.

Not that the friendship wouldn't come anyway. If there was anything Harry could say about the Rangers it was that they were an easy group to get along with. As long as Jason wasn't being grumpy and confrontational that is. And somehow Harry felt that that particular attitude was kept aside for him alone.

He felt so special, really he did.

After their brief discussion, the Rangers, including Tommy, morphed once more and Zordon contacted them, explaining to them the consequences of having the Green Power Coin aligned with their team. Harry had to admit that seeing the "Dragonzord in Battle Mode" was rather awe inspiring. The new machine had the same general configuration as the Megazord, but with the Dragonzord as the central piece and without the Pterodactyl's chest plate.

Perhaps the fact that it fought with a large staff/spear helped make him like it a bit more too.

Shortly afterwards, the Rangers dismissed their Zords and the Viewing Globe faded as they teleported away from the battle site. Mere moments later, five columns of light flew down from the ceiling of the Command Center and faded to reveal all but Billy facing toward Zordon a few feet away from where Harry was sitting.

"Woah…" Tommy said, his eyes wide as he glanced at the other Rangers. "That was a rush!"

The wide smile on Jason's face looked more than a bit odd to Harry as he caught it in profile when the Red Ranger turned to face Tommy. "Yeah, you get used to it after a while though."

"And it's much easier to take then Harry's form to teleportation!" Trini commented with a soft giggle.

"Hey now!" Harry interjected from his seat, still not feeling up to giving standing a try, though he knew it wouldn't be much longer as his magic was already returning to him and bringing his physical strength back with it. It seemed there were some unexpected benefits from linking up with the Grid as he had, and if they were all along the same lines as this faster magical recovery rate then he was all for it. "I've told you a few times already, apparating is something that takes some getting used to and the first time is always the worst."

Trini spun to face him, the happiness and relief she was feeling at the apparent end of the entire "Evil Ranger" ordeal clearly written on her face. "And if your people were willing to develop a method of magical travel that felt like that does and keep doing it enough to find out that it got better with time then I have to say that I doubt your sanity!"

Harry opened his mouth to refute her comments before his mind jumped to the image of Dumbledore, ever the wise wizard but definitely more than a little unhinged. Nodding his head in acknowledgement to her point, Harry laughed lightly. "Touché."

Everyone joined them in their merriment and laughter, the relief breaking over them all at once and leading to the near hysterical enjoyment of just being alive still and letting the stress roll off of them for a time. It took a bit before the laughter died down, but when it did, Harry found a solemn looking Tommy standing in front of him.

"Hey…" the Green Ranger started haltingly. "I… I just wanted to apologize. I did a lot of bad stuff to the Rangers, but I came the closest to killing you more than once. I know that I was under Rita's control, but I was still aware of what was going on at the very back of my mind. I just… I'm sorry."

Harry grunted as he forced himself to his feet. His knees almost gave out on him but he quickly regained his balance and placed his left hand on Tommy's shoulder. "It's like you said, Tommy, you were under Rita's control. You know that none of us will hold anything you did during that time against you, but me most of all. I'm no stranger to mind control magics and I've known a fair few people, friends and otherwise, who have been held under similar spells to what was used on you. You'll find no hate coming from me."

Tommy's smile started haltingly as Harry spoke but quickly grew. "Thanks, man. I promise I'll make it up to you." He turned to face the other four in the room. "All of you. I promise."

The potentially touching moment was interrupted as Billy's signature blue teleportation light finally flew down to join the others in the Command Center. When it faded to reveal the introverted Ranger he blushed brightly at seeing everyone's attention directed at him. "Uh…" Billy stammered for a moment before facing Harry. "Would you mind if I used your desk for a bit Harry? I have a project I need to complete and none of the consoles here have enough surface area for me to properly arrange my work space." He idly held up the items he held: a small toolbox and a smaller wooden box, apparently the reason he had gotten back later than the others.

Harry collapsed back into his chair with a huff, he still wasn't quite ready to stand constantly just yet, and shot Billy a smile. "Sure, go ahead. Though there isn't a chair in there right now."

Billy nodded. "That's fine. It shouldn't take more than a few minutes to complete." With that he turned and quickly made his way into Harry's small room, idly shutting the door behind him.

Silence consumed the Command Center for a few moments before Jason perked up slightly and turned to face Zordon. "We missed you Zordon, it's good to see you back."

Almost as one, the other Rangers spun around to face the old wizard. Zack stepped up to Jason's side and clapped a hand onto his shoulder. "Yeah, morale was pretty low around here without you."

Zordon smiled as he spoke. "The fact remains that even as you faced your greatest danger, with all the odds stacked against you, you carried on like true heroes and persevered. I couldn't be more proud of you for that fact alone."

Trini walked over to Alpha, who had been silently working at a computer station the entire time, and turned him to face Zordon. "You can thank Alpha for a lot of that. He kept us going even when things were at their worst."

The robot's saucer head tilted down as he let out a shy sounding, "Aww…" Seriously, if Harry hadn't known he was a robot, he would have doubted with all the emotion the thing was showing.

"Alpha," Zordon continued, his pride clear in his voice. "You displayed exemplary leadership capabilities in my absence. Without you, it is possible that the battle could have been lost. You have my thanks, and the thanks of all those who may have been enslaved by the forces of evil." As Zordon closed his eyes and bowed his head, Alpha seemed almost overcome with awkwardness, stammering for several moments before turning and walking slowly to another computer station while Harry and the others chuckled good-naturedly.

"Tommy," Zordon turned his attention to the still subdued teen, calling him up to the front of the group before he continued. "You suffered greatly during your time under Rita's control, but you have come out of it as well as can be expected. There may be mental or emotional scars still to deal with in your future, but those here with you in the Command Center can all be relied on to help you through it. As Jason indicated, you are one of us now. You are a Power Ranger and all here will be willing to help you if you only ask. We would have done this whether you had decided to join us or not, but you do us a great honor in your willingness to join our fight."

Tommy looked thoughtful for a moment before giving Zordon a solemn nod. "No matter what you guys have all said so far, I know what I did. Under Rita's control or not, I have to do what I can to make up for it. I will fight alongside you to protect Angel Grove and all of Earth from Rita's plots. It's the least I can do after everything I put you all through. But more than that, I have this Power and it wouldn't be right to not use it to help."

Harry was momentarily stricken by how similar that had been to something he himself would have said. It almost seemed like Tommy may have had a bit of a "Saving People Thing" of his own. Either that or just a strong sense of right and wrong and a need to prove himself.

"And you Harry," Zordon spoke once more, snapping Harry from his thoughts and prompting him to heave himself out of his seat once more, luckily finding his balance a little easier this time. "Once more you displayed your willingness to put yourself in harm's way to protect those who needed it. Ever since you arrived in our dimension you have displayed qualities that have always been treasured in those that fight for the side of the light: kindness, determination, an indomitable will, and no small amount of courage and quick thinking. I am most honored to now be able to welcome you officially to the ranks of the Power Rangers."

"So Harry is really a Power Ranger now, Zordon?" Kimberly asked.

"Yes, Kimberly, Harry is officially a Ranger now. When he made the trip to commune with the Morphing Grid in an attempt to locate me, Harry and I managed to come to an agreement with the consciousness of the Grid. You all saw the results for yourselves."

"Very cool, man." Zack commented with a smile, stepping back toward Harry and smacking his arm playfully. Harry would never admit that the blow had nearly taken him off his feet. Zack then paused and turned back to Zordon. "But why is his costume so different from ours?"

The other Rangers all perked up at Zack's question, including Billy who had just emerged from Harry's room with his toolbox and wooden box in hand. Zordon looked to Harry, a silent query in his eyes to which Harry nodded after a moment of thought. With a deep breath, Zordon began speaking again. "With Harry's arrival in our dimension and Rita's subsequent taking of his wand, the balance of the Grid was thrown askew. All across the galaxy, the forces of darkness were able to take advantage of this and take more of the Grid's Power for themselves. If left unchecked, this would have meant the eventual destruction of all we know as evil took control over the galaxy."

"You mean that evil would have won just because Harry showed up here?" Jason shouted, near demanding his answer from Zordon before shooting a scathing look Harry's way.

"Hey, it's not like I specifically chose to come here and give the wand to Rita." Harry snapped back, irritated.

"Harry is right, Jason. He did not choose for any of this to happen and so none of the blame should be placed at his feet. In any case, the imbalance has been corrected. During the bargaining with the Morphing Grid, Harry agreed to give up half of his magical abilities and the artifacts of magic he brought with him to our dimension in exchange for the Power you saw him using today. Because this Power represents a new facet of the Morphing Grid and is based primarily on Harry's own brand of magic, the design of his costume is different from your own, which was primarily influenced by myself."

Trini still looked confused. "So Harry becoming a Ranger fixed things? Just like that?"

Zordon hummed in thought for a moment before speaking. "Think of the Grid and its balance like a scale. Rita's theft of Harry's Elder Wand tipped things into the favor of the forces of darkness and with that side heavier, those forces were able to pull in more Power, or weight in this analogy, which then tipped it further and let them draw on yet more. Over time, this imbalance would have resulted in the total loss of access to the Power for all those of the light, resulting in darkness conquering all. With Harry added to the light side, as a champion of the light in his own world with a not insubstantial amount of his own power, the scale was evened out again, preventing the forces of darkness from growing stronger still."

"So Harry acted as a counterweight?" Billy asked, having put his toolbox down and moved to stand with the others. "He corrected the imbalance just by his presence?"

"And you said he gave up half his magic to do it?" Kimberly followed up, shooting a sad look to Harry before turning back to Zordon.

"That is correct." Zordon nodded, speaking solemnly. "He has made a great sacrifice in order to ensure victory for us in this battle as well as for all forces of good across the galaxy."

The other Rangers all turned to face Harry at this, various looks of sympathy and thanks on their faces. Even Jason had a grudging look of respect and gave him a brief, almost reluctant nod when he met his eyes. "Ah…" Harry stammered. "Well, it's not like I could have just let things keep going as they were… I… er… I had to do what I could to help and my magic alone wasn't really doing much good…"

He looked down as his face lit up with a blush. Even after so long, he still wasn't good at dealing with admiration and gratitude like this. Especially when he knew there was no way he could refute it. He felt a hand gently rest on his shoulder and snapped his head up revealing Trini as the perpetrator and standing right in front of him.

The Yellow Ranger gave him a soft smile before nodding to him. "Thank you. You gave up a lot for us and we all appreciate it."

Harry froze, struck by the look of sincerity and gratitude in her eyes and voice. After a moment, he cleared his throat lightly and nodded back. "You're welcome…"

Trini smiled at him once more before turning back to the others. Harry saw Kimberly and Zack exchange wide smiles before schooling their faces when they noticed Harry watching.

Jason broke the mood with his gruff comment. "So what does this mean for you outside of morphing? Can you still use your magic like before or what?"

Harry raised an eyebrow before idly lifting his golden wand in his right hand and waving it back and forth briefly. "I could see if I can still turn you into a pigeon if you'd like? That should answer the question, right?"

Jason blanched and took a half step back. "No… No, that won't be necessary."

Harry smiled slightly as the other Rangers chuckled. Even Tommy laughed a bit, though he seemed more confused by the interaction than anything else. Finally, Harry answered the initial question. "I can still use my magic as before, just not quite as much. I don't mean to brag, but I was one of the most powerful magic users in my age group if not all of Magical Britain back home. Now I'm probably closer to being an average level magic user. It'll probably take some getting used to, but I should be alright."

Silence once more surrounded the group, save for the idle beeping and humming of the machinery around them, until Zack broke the silence. "Hey! This means that you don't have an excuse to pass on joining Jason's karate class now!"

Harry groaned as Zack laughed, causing Kimberly and Trini to perk up as well, remembering the conversation they had had back before the martial arts tournament when they had first seen Tommy. It seemed so long ago after all they had been through in the four days since then, but that didn't change their enjoyment of the eventual outcome.

Jason crossed his arms, a smug look on his face as he chuckled. "You know that I won't give you any special treatment just because you're a Ranger, right?"

Harry shot Jason an incredulous look before taking a deep breath and meeting his eyes with all the determination he had gained in his old world. "I wouldn't ask it of you anyway, Jason. I wouldn't be able to learn if you weren't doing your best to teach me."

Zordon interrupted the potential stare-off with a soft chuckle of his own. "Worry not, Harry. Your connection to the Morphing Grid will help you to learn the skills necessary to more efficiently fight against the forces of evil. It will not be as… difficult a task as you seem to fear."

Billy perked up, a smile on his face. "You mean like how I picked up karate as quickly as I did? That was because of the Morphing Grid? Because I'm a Power Ranger?"

Zordon returned the teenage genius's smile. "Quite correct, Billy. Though Harry's connection is different than that which you all possess, it will function in a very similar fashion."

"What do you mean by it being different?" Harry asked, eager to learn more about his power from the only being who could tell him at present.

Zordon closed his eyes in thought once more before responding. "In my time since connection was reestablished I have been both helping guide the others to free Tommy and studying your new Power, Harry. From what I have gathered in the brief time I had, your connection is similar, but lesser than that of the other Rangers. I believe that this is because your Power is based more on your own energies than drawing solely from the grid as the others do. This is why you became so weak after the fight, why using your morph will tire you more than the other Rangers. Yours is a unique situation, Harry. As I'm sure you know, there has never been another Ranger with power like your own and that will affect your morphing. So much of what we learn about this new branch of the Power will likely be equally new and unique."

Harry rolled his eyes at Zordon's last statement, drawing a light chuckle from the old wizard. As if he needed any reminder that he was in uncharted waters.

"Now, if there are no further questions at this time, we have some business to attend to." Zordon said, his voice once more firm and serious. "Tommy. Harry. Step forward."

When the overwhelmed looking teen and Harry stepped to the front of the group, Harry mostly steady on his feet now, Zordon spoke once more. "Now that you are both true Power Rangers, you must follow three basic rules of forever lose the protection of the Power."

Oh crap. This was the part where Zordon laid out his ideology that Harry really didn't agree with, wasn't it?

"First, never use your power for personal gain."

Alright, that one wasn't too bad. So he wouldn't be able to use his morph for whatever he wanted? It's not like there were many other uses for it other than fighting Rita. As long as he wasn't interested in courting fame anyway, which he never has been. Though it did raise some concerns due to the nature of his new Power.

"Second, never escalate a battle unless Rita forces you to."

And there it was. That was the rule that had set off Harry's unease after Zack and the others got so worried after Zack had saved them all from Goldar and Tommy when Jason was being held captive. That was the rule that was so similar to Dumbledore's "everyone deserves a second chance" mentality that had caused so much trouble for the Order during the war.

"And finally, keep your identity a secret. No one may know that you are a Power Ranger."

This one also wasn't as bad as it could have been. In fact, it straight up made sense. If their identities got out, there would be no end of trouble from concerned family and friends or people seeking the fame of being associated with the Power Rangers. The list went on and on. Harry had already gotten his fill of that kind of treatment with the whole Boy-Who-Lived deal, thank you very much.

Harry idly glanced to his right, where Tommy was nodding with a smile on his face. He almost groaned when he heard Tommy speak. "You can count on me Zordon, one hundred percent."

Zordon nodded in thanks and shifted to look toward Billy. "I believe you have something prepared for Tommy, do you not, Billy?"

Billy jumped slightly before stepping forward and offering the wooden box he was still holding to him. "Here," Billy said with a nervous smile. "I made you a communicator."

"Thanks, man," Tommy answered, sounding surprised and touched as he opened the box to reveal the communicator watch that rested within. Harry surmised that it must have been why Billy didn't arrive at the command center until after the others and what he had had to finish tweaking when he did arrive.

Once Tommy had closed the box again, Zordon shifted his attention to Harry with a calm look on his face. The silence in the Command Center seemed to stretch on for much longer than the few seconds it was as everyone seemed to be waiting for Harry to agree as well. Finally, Zordon spoke again. "And you, Harry. Do you agree to follow these rules?" The wizard's face now seemed almost reluctant, as if he expected the problems that were about to surface.

Harry sighed as he shook his head. "I'm sorry, Zordon, but I cannot, in good conscience, agree with your terms. I can see the wisdom in some of the rules, but not in all."

The uproar was nearly deafening, though not entirely unexpected.

Tommy and Billy had merely flinched slightly in surprise the latter leveling an inquisitive look toward Harry. Trini and Kimberly had spoken their disbelief, though at a reasonable volume. Zack and Alpha let out exclamations of surprise, but not much else.

Jason just started shouting. It wouldn't have been too bad if he hadn't been standing mere feet behind Harry when he started. "What do you mean you don't agree to the rules!? You have to! You're a Power Ranger and those are the rules that we are meant to follow!"

"Please calm yourself, Jason, and let Harry explain his reasoning."

Harry was convinced that it was only Zordon's insistence that kept the Red Ranger from throttling him. The other Rangers, Tommy included, looked concerned, but Jason seemed nearly overwhelmed with rage. Harry idly mused that perhaps he was seeing Harry's refusal to follow Zordon's terms as another attempt at Jason's status as the leader of the Power Rangers. That is if that was even Jason's problem anymore. It was entirely possible that the Red Ranger had gone from simple dislike based on paranoia to outright hatred without basis with all the stress the team had gone through with the Green Ranger episode. It wouldn't be the first time someone had focused their ire on him as an easy target.

Shaking his head slightly to try and get his thoughts in order, Harry looked back up at the solemn face of Zordon. "I have absolutely no problem with keeping my identity a secret. I know all too well how public opinion can be a fickle thing and if everyone knew who we were it would likely bring more harm than good.

"I can also understand not using the Power for personal gain as well. Within reason that is. I can see how this guideline is set to keep people from taking advantage of the Power, but as the Power in this case is based on my own magic, it is mine to decide how I will use it. I mostly object to this rule on the grounds that my own magic and my morph are now irreversibly intertwined."

Zordon's head bobbed in his tube as he nodded slowly. "That is understandable, Harry. Though I sense that your true issue comes with the rule against escalation."

Harry took a deep breath before letting it out slowly as he nodded. "It does, Zordon. As I once mentioned, and all but Tommy know, in my last world I was involved in a war against a powerful dark wizard named Voldemort. During that war, the side of the light was led by a great light wizard by the name of Albus Dumbledore. He was a wizard of great power and said to be the only one that Voldemort feared. The problem was that he was a very forgiving man, almost to fault. It went so far that several fighters in the Order of the Phoenix, the group that Dumbledore led, were killed in battle because of Dumbledore's ideology: everyone deserves a second chance.

"Now, I agree with this in principle, but Dumbledore took it to the extent that he didn't allow any of the members of the Order to use more destructive magics that might have the risk of killing any of the enemy. He preferred to take them captive and send them through the process of the law. The war was not going well until another member of the order convinced Dumbledore to allow members to use more harmful spells if they felt it necessary. It was a turning point for the light as several of Voldemort's most powerful and sadistic followers were killed in the next few battles, but the damage had already been done and we were reduced to guerrilla tactics as we lacked the numbers to fight openly anymore by the time my friends and I joined the fight."

Harry looked over the other Rangers as he spoke, keeping a particular eye on Jason as he was the only one who seemed completely unmoved by the speech so far. With a sigh, he turned back to Zordon. "My point, though, is that your concept of no escalation is frighteningly similar to Dumbledore's flawed ideology during the war I've already been through. I was first exposed to it when Zack got grilled by Kimberly, Trini, and Billy after he saved my life by summoning his Dinozord against Goldar and Tommy. I was taught under the second ideology in my training for the war. I was taught that if you are facing an enemy that has absolutely no problem with killing you and those you care for that you hold absolutely nothing back in your efforts to end them before they can do so."

Harry turned back to Jason once more, meeting his eyes as he spoke in an effort to calm the rage that was still seething behind his eyes. "Now I'm not saying that you should charge into battle in your Zords for every monster, but if you see one about to destroy a building or attack some civilians and it doesn't know you're there, there is absolutely no reason you can't bring together the Power Blaster and take it down in one shot. There is no need for a long, drawn out battle where you start bare fisted and then pull out the weapons and then call the Zords when Rita grows the monster. If you have the opportunity to take out a threat before it has a chance to do more damage, collateral or otherwise, then it should be taken. You all consider yourselves to be protectors of Angel Grove and the world, and you have done an excellent job of it thus far, but if one has an opportunity to avoid a great deal of trouble through a little of their own escalation of force then it would be almost negligent to not do so."

Jason seemed outwardly unimpressed with Harry's comments, though his eyes were perhaps a bit softer. The other Rangers looked largely uneasy with his opinion, though Zack and Tommy were at least nodding along with what he said. Then Zordon spoke once more, drawing Harry's attention back to him. "While I see your point, Harry, there is nothing I can do. The oaths that I call for have been set in stone for over ten thousand years, since the time I first bargained with the Morphing Grid to create my branch of the Power. The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers are bound by these oaths or else the Power will abandon them, as was my agreement with the Grid so long ago."

Harry's brow scrunched up in thought. There was something about how Zordon had worded that that seemed off. Important…

Then Harry realized what the old wizard had been suggesting. "So since the oaths you call for are exclusive to the Mighty Morphin Power, I can set my own oaths? Or have none at all? Since there were none discussed when I bargained with the Grid for my coin?"

Zordon nodded, a proud smile on his face, though still a hint of weariness in his eyes. "This is true, Harry. I caution you though, as you suggested, it is a great burden to have this level of power and not abuse it. The temptation will be there, which is why the oaths were put in place initially."

Zordon had a point. There was a way to fix things though, and it would probably help settle the nerves of the other Rangers as well. With a firm nod, Harry once more lifted his wand, this time pointing it straight up in the air as he called on his flagging magic reserves to guide him. "Very well then, I offer you my own oath. I, Lord Harry James Potter, Magi Ranger and originator of the Magi Ranger Branch of the Power, do swear on my magic that I will use the Power granted to me by the Morphing Grid to fight for the side of the light and against the darkness and all those who seek to do harm needlessly. I swear that I will avoid using it wantonly or without provocation but caution that I will not readily stand by and allow the forces of darkness to harm those innocent in the conflict I now find myself in. On my magic and under pain of losing such and the Power, I so swear, so mote it be."

A visible pulse of magic with Harry at the central point and backed by the power of the Morphing Grid emanated from Harry as he concluded his oath. The magic washed over the Rangers and Alpha with only the slightest flinch from them, but when it passed through Zordon's tube, it soaked into it and presumable into Zordon himself. As the object of the oath, the magic then worked to guide him through his part in accepting Harry's vow, should he so choose. "I hear and accept your oath, Lord Harry James Potter. So mote it be."

A second, smaller pulse of magic emanated from Zordon's tube and washed over Harry, binding the oath to him as the minor ritual was completed. From deep within himself, coming from the tiny point of light that represented his still recovering reservoir of Grid Power, Harry heard a second voice. " **I too accept your oath, Harry Potter. And I thank you for swearing to protect my balance.** "

While it wasn't his intention when making the oath, Harry could see the Grid's point of view on it. By swearing to stay true to the light, he swore to preserve that which he became a Ranger to restore. And it was more than likely that if he somehow broke the oath and lost his magic and the Power, the balance would still remain intact due to the presence of the Magi Ranger branch of Power formed from the portion of his magic he had traded to the Grid.

He was pulled out of his musings as Zordon spoke once more. "A most interesting sensation, Harry. I might wish to discuss it with you another time. I have never quite felt magic like that in all my years."

Harry smiled as he relaxed and lowered his wand again, idly twirling it in his hand as he spoke. "Not surprising since I don't think the Grid allows for anything like a magical vow."

"Um… excuse me," Zack stepped forward. "No offense here Harry, but could you explain how a few fancy words and a light show mean that you not liking the oaths is alright now?"

Harry turned to face Zack fully, and thus the other Rangers who were all looking as confused and concerned before. It seemed as though they realized, as Zordon had probably feared, that having someone with the power of a Ranger without the checks of Zordon's oaths could be a real problem. It was definitely close to the surface of their thoughts with Tommy only having just been dealt with. "What I just did, Zack, was more than just fancy words and a light show. I gave a magical oath. If I willingly break the terms of the oath, then I pay the consequences, which were laid out in the oath."

Zack looked confused still, but Billy spoke slowly. "So… if you break the oath then you lose your magic?"

Harry nodded. "And thus, I lose access to my morph since, as I mentioned earlier, my magic and morph are now tied rather closely together."

"So what exactly does that mean?" Kimberly asked.

"It means, Rangers," Zordon said, happiness in his voice once more. "That Harry has made his own version of the oaths I asked of you all. His ideals differ from my own, but not in enough of a way to cause any true strife between us. He is sworn to aid the side of goodness and light against the forces of evil, and that is enough for me."

The other Rangers seemed satisfied with Zordon's announcement, though Jason had once more crossed his arms and was watching Harry somewhat warily. Zack, however was now smiling widely. "Great, man. Good to know that you're on our side on pain of losing what would make you a problem on the other side…" He paused for a moment and scrunched his brow before shaking his head. "That didn't come out well, but you know what I mean." At Harry's laughing nod, Zack continued. "So now I just have one question for you…"

When the Black Ranger trailed off with a teasing smile, Harry prompted him. "And that is…?"

" _Lord_ Harry James Potter? Do I need to bow before you, _My Lord_?" Zack made a comically low, sweeping bow before falling into uncontrollable laughter and pulling himself upright once again sparking a few of the others into chuckles.

Harry just rolled his eyes. "Technically, I am a Lord of an Ancient and Noble Pureblooded House of the Magical Realm. However, as that was in a different dimension it almost definitely doesn't mean much here. The only reason I even said it is because my magic guided me through the proper forms for the oath, much as it guided Zordon to accept it as the recipient of the oath. Those forms require my full name and title."

Kimberly perked up, her laughter stopping immediately. "Wait, so you mean you're actually nobility?"

Harry sighed, idly rubbing the bridge of his nose to try and fight off the headache he could feel building. "As I said, technically, yes, but it doesn't really apply in this dimension."

Kimberly didn't seem to be listening as she merely smiled widely before idly bumping Trini with her shoulder. The Yellow Ranger shot her friend a glare before blushing lightly and looking away.

Harry just rolled his eyes again.

Tommy took that moment to speak his own piece. "So I know I'm the new guy here, but I don't think I'm the only one who is more than a little confused. Harry, you mentioned a war. And that you're from another dimension. I just don't really get it."

Zack perked up again. "You know, Tommy has a point, Harry. Since we first met here you haven't really talked much about yourself."

Kimberly smiled brightly as she stepped up next to Zack. "Yeah, and since we're all Power Rangers now, do you think you could tell us a bit more about yourself?"

Harry glanced around at the others. Billy just gave him a shrug while Jason's look stayed as stoic as before. Trini looked outwardly neutral, but interest and excitement danced in her eyes.

Then Zordon added his argument. "I admit to a bit of curiosity myself, Harry. Would you do us the honor of telling us how you came to be here? We have heard small details from time to time, but the entire picture is still shadowed. It may give us the insight needed to understand your point of view if nothing else."

Harry thought for a second. It was true that he hadn't told them too much of his story. So far the only times he had spoken of his past were when he had first met them when tensions were high and there was no way he would have given them any detail, a few bits when the others had been nearly ready to give up on the fight after the Megazord was trapped, and a bit more with his argument against the escalation oath. After fighting together against Rita's forces, couldn't it be argued that he should trust them enough to at least give them some kind of an idea as to where he was from? Was the near-month since he had joined them in their dimension a long enough time for him to have that kind of trust in them?

"Come on Harry," Zack prompted eagerly. "Just who is Lord Harry James Potter?"

Harry let his gaze drift across the others once more. From the stoic indifference of Jason to the eagerness of Zack and Kimberly and on past Tommy and Billy's calm interest. From Zordon's clear amusement and curiosity to Alpha's completely unreadable metallic saucer head. It was Trini's now obvious look of eager interest from the back of the group that pushed him over the edge though. It wasn't the easiest story for him to tell, some parts being harder than others, but it was time he trusted the Rangers with more of his past. After what they had been through and the drama he had just raised, he really did owe them at least that much.

With a sigh, Harry moved back over to his chair by the Viewing Glove and once more sat to face the others, studying his wand for a moment before looking back up. "Alright, you want to know about me? Then you may want to sit down, because this could take a while."

-MR-

Once again, thanks for reading and don't forget to review,

Tenstar12


	20. Chapter 20

Magi Ranger

By: Tenstar12

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or Power Rangers.

 **Chapter 20, The Third Obligatory Expositionary Chapter, Now with Backstory!**

Harry sat in silence for a few minutes, gathering his thoughts while the others settled themselves in for a long story. Trini and Kimberly ended up sitting closest to him, settling side-by-side on the steps that lead out of the circle of consoles and toward the Viewing Globe. Zack just sprawled on the floor a short distance behind them while Billy perched himself on the flat top of one of the computer consoles. Jason leaned up against another computer, his arms still crossed and his stern look directed at Harry. Tommy, after hesitating for a moment, sat down near Zack before calmly waiting for Harry to start. Alpha and Zordon merely remained as they were, though Harry supposed being a robot and a floating head made getting comfortable a non-issue.

Finally, Harry took a deep breath and started his tale. "I suppose the best place to start is at the very beginning. In my world, some fifty or so years before I was born, there was a boy named Tom Marvolo Riddle. This boy was an orphan with a less than perfect childhood and a tendency toward acts of cruelty who was later told he was a wizard and taken to Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry."

"Aren't witchcraft and wizardry the same thing?" Kimberly asked, confusion on her face.

Harry raised an eyebrow. "Probably, but it's been the name of the school for countless generations, ever since it was founded. The school itself was pretty much one of the most revered facilities and organizations in all of Magical Britain. As such nobody thought anything weird about the name, or if they did they didn't voice it, Hogwarts was just Hogwarts." Harry paused to let out a rueful chuckle. "The Wizarding world is weird. There will be several things that don't make much sense from a practicality standpoint. You eventually learn to ignore it."

Seeing Kimberly was satisfied, if not entirely convinced of his point, Harry continued. "Tom went through his seven years at Hogwarts, graduated as Head Boy, that is to say he was one of the top students in his year and was given a position of authority as a result, and then vanished. Some years later he returned to the public eye calling himself Lord Voldemort and led a campaign of terror that nearly brought the entire Wizarding world to its knees."

Harry met the eyes of his fellow Rangers (And how odd was it to call them that!), seeing that he had caught their attention, he took another breath. "This was the First Blood War. Voldemort and his followers, the Death Eaters, fought for their idea of pure blood idealism. In their world view, if you weren't a pureblooded wizard, meaning you had all magical ancestors going back a certain number of generations, then you were inferior in every way. It was worse still if you were a magical born to non-magical parents, we called them Muggleborns. Those with non-magical parentage were treated as less than trash and were typically killed on the spot, along with their families for daring to have anything to do with magic."

"Damn…" Zack breathed, his eyes wide in horror. "That's… That's terrible…"

The others nodded or gave out grunts of confirmation before Harry managed to continue. "This all continued until October 31, 1981. On that night, Voldemort went to the town of Godric's Hollow and to the home of Lilly and James Potter. My parents. On that night, Voldemort broke through the magical protections on our home, protections that were supposed to be impregnable, killed both of my parents in cold blood and tried to do the same to me. Needless to say, he failed."

Kimberly and Trini both had tears in their eyes and Zack's looked suspiciously close as Harry spoke. "How old were you?" Trini asked, choking up slightly as she did.

Harry gave her a weak smile. "I had turned one three months before."

Everyone froze for a moment. Harry wasn't surprised that it was Billy who did the math and put everything together first. "Wait, that would suggest that you were born in late July or early August of 1980, correct?"

Harry nodded. "Yep. July 31, 1980 at St. Mungo's Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries in London."

Zack nearly jumped to his feet as he near-shouted in astonishment. "But it's only 1993 now… Are you saying that you're only thirteen years old?!" Jason stood straight up, looking at Harry with eyes that were equally horrified and confused.

Harry just laughed. "Guys, cool it. I'm nineteen. When I traveled to this dimension I also traveled back in time. When I left my own dimension it was September of 1999. I don't know the actual day for sure on account of being arrested on trumped up charges and all that. And I'll get to that later on." The last was directed at Tommy, who looked ready to interject when Harry mentioned being arrested.

"So the discrepancies in the temporal flow between our dimension and your own have resulted in you being 19, but also 13?" Billy asked, looking more confused than any of the others. Harry could sympathize, time travel did weird things to your head if you weren't careful.

"No, Billy, I'm just 19. Just because my birth date is only 13 years ago here, doesn't mean my actual age is any different. If you ask Zordon, when they set up my identity here, he had Alpha set up my birth year here to reflect my actual age instead of my real birthdate."

"Harry speaks the truth, Rangers." Zordon interjected. Harry was just thankful that someone was stepping in so the entire storytelling didn't get hung up on the time travel issue. He would have to carefully gloss over the time traveling in his third year to avoid a similar problem. "Harry's chronological age, as defined by our sensors in the Command Center, is 19. His actual birth date in his original dimension means little at this point."

Seeing that the others were satisfied and Billy had calmed slightly, Harry continued his story. "So when Voldemort tried to kill me on that night, he cast a very powerful curse known as the Avada Kedavra, or Killing Curse. It does much what the name suggests: if you're hit with it, you die. Except I didn't. I've heard theories and suggestions for years over what happened that night, but ultimately all I've been able to figure out is that my mum did something that night that protected me from the spell and continued to offer a kind of protection for many years afterward.

"In any case, Voldemort's spell rebounded off of me, leaving me with this scar," Harry idly lifted his bangs up to reveal the now faded lightning bolt scar on his forehead before continuing. "The spell then hit him and destroyed his body. He was left in a sort of spirit form, more like a wraith than anything else, and fled."

Tommy tilted his head in confusion. "Wait, if the spell is supposed to kill instantly and it bounced off of you then why didn't it kill this Voldemonkey guy?"

Harry let out a snort of laughter before speaking. "Voldemort had taken his own steps to ensure his immortality. He once bragged in my presence that he had gone further along the road to immortality than any before him. I'll explain exactly how he did it later on, but I'm fairly sure that that's why he wasn't killed that night. Would have done everyone a lot of good if he had been though, that's for sure…"

After a few moments to collect himself again, Harry let out a sigh. "Ok, look. This next part is not exactly easy for me to talk about. I didn't really have a… happy childhood. I've had a lot of time to work past my issues with it, but it's not something that's fun to speak of. That being said, please hold any questions as best you can, alright?" Pausing once again to get nods from everyone, though they all had looks of concern on their faces now, even Jason, Harry closed his eyes and began.

"I was taken from my parents' house that night by a man named Rubeus Hagrid. He was probably one of the kindest people I have ever known. A real gentle soul, but certainly not the brightest. He was a simple man, good natured, but he couldn't keep a secret to save his life. In any case, he was there on the orders of the Headmaster of Hogwarts, Albus Dumbledore, who I briefly mentioned earlier. His orders were to take me from the ruins of my home in Godric's Hollow and bring me to the house of my maternal aunt, Petunia Dursley. Dumbledore, Hagrid, and Minerva McGonagall, another professor from Hogwarts, left me on the doorstep that night and left to join the rest of the celebrating Wizarding world, jubilant over the defeat of He Who Must Not Be Named by the suddenly famous Harry James Potter, the Boy-Who-Lived."

Kimberly looked confused now. "I thought you beat that flight from death guy?" Harry gave her a dry look and she winced slightly before apologizing. "Sorry, but still. Who is this He Who Must Not Be Named?"

"Forget that," Zack piped up. "Who's the flight from death guy you're talking about?"

"Flight from death is the French translation of Voldemort," Trini answered promptly, still facing Harry.

Harry nodded, taking the new direction with pleasure if only to delay the difficult retelling a bit longer. "And He Who Must Not Be Named was a title of sorts that the Wizarding public gave to Voldemort. Along with You-Know-Who and, in one rather amusing instance, Lord Thingy, the general population went out of their way to avoid saying his self-given name, so great was the fear he inspired. As far as the translation goes, I'm fairly certain it was intentional on his part too. I didn't know what his name meant until now, but I was once told that he anagrammed his given name, Tom Marvolo Riddle, into 'I am Lord Voldemort.' It was a name he had started using even before leaving Hogwarts amongst those closest to him who later became among the first of his Death Eater followers."

"If he chose such a name for himself it would stand to reason that death was a great source of fear for him." Billy said, one hand resting on his chin as he did so.

Harry nodded again. "With the lengths he took to try and ensure his avoiding death, and based on what I've been told about him, you're probably right, Billy. There are some dark depths that wizards can sink to in their studies of magic, and Tom went deeper than many others would have even dreamt of in his pursuit of immortality…"

There was silence in the command center as everyone digested these ominous words. The Rangers looked somewhat unsettled by what little of his story Harry had already told, but then hearing that someone they knew had been orphaned at such a young age and had a thus far ambiguously terrible childhood would throw anyone off.

Finally, after a few minutes and seeing no other option, Harry continued his story once more. "Living with the Dursleys was a less than ideal situation to say the least. They made it very clear from as far back as I can remember that I was neither wanted nor needed in their household. I was treated as little better than a servant or slave in my time there, always being given all the chores that needed to be done and being punished for the slightest wrong, no matter how much of a perceived wrong it was."

Temporarily lost in his memories, Harry trailed off for a moment, leaving Jason an opening to speak, his brow furrowing as he did so. "So you had a bunch of chores and a strict upbringing? I really don't see how that can be considered a rough childhood… Maybe not super happy, but not necessarily hard…"

Harry shot Jason a hard look, meeting his eyes steadily as he spoke. "From a young age, really as soon as I was tall enough to see over the countertop while standing on a stool, I was forced to cook all the meals in the house. If I got anything wrong, if the food was even the slightest bit overdone or didn't taste quite right, I got punished by being locked in the cupboard under the stairs without any food for myself. I would get sent out to mow the lawn from age 8. They would have me do it later in the evening when it was too dark for the neighbors to make anything out and I had to use an old manual push mower since a gas powered one would wake up everyone. If I missed any spots, I would be locked in the cupboard for the entirety of the next day, only being let out to try and fix my 'mistakes' that evening."

Jason's eyes grew wider and wider as Harry continued, describing the various horrors and cruel treatment that he received from his blood relatives. Trini and Kimberly had tears in their eyes again and Billy, Tommy, and Zack were beginning to look ill. Zordon and Alpha remained impassive as ever, though a hint of concern could be seen in Zordon's eyes if one knew where to look.

Finally, Trini cleared her throat lightly and spoke with more than a bit of hesitation. "They… they didn't… hit you, did they?"

Harry smiled self-depreciatingly. "Only once. Uncle Vernon got carried away one morning and cuffed me upside the head when I didn't cook enough for breakfast before sending my cousin and me off to school. He managed to hit my eye well enough that by the time I got to the school, there was a rather easily visible bruise forming. Naturally, there was an investigation, but nothing ever came of it. To this day I don't know how much of it was due to Vernon paying bribes and how much of it was just laziness on the part of the investigators, but the only thing that came out of that was a weekend of no meals locked in the cupboard."

"You keep mentioning this cupboard…" Tommy asked, hesitantly, though all the Rangers looked rather uneasy now. "Was it like some kind of time-out room or something? Did your cousin get sent there too?"

This time Harry full out laughed. "Precious Diddy-dums get sent to the cupboard under the stairs? That's a joke if I ever heard one. No, Tommy, my cousin was the most spoiled fat lump you've ever seen. He makes Bulk look intelligent and well-mannered by comparison. Besides, Dudley had his own room to get sent to if he ever did anything worthy of punishment, not that that happened often. Most of his bad behavior was blamed on me after all."

"His own room…" Jason whispered, horrified all over again. "You slept in the cupboard under the stairs? They were sending you to your room and locking you in there… in the cupboard under the stairs!?"

Nodding at Jason, Harry smirked slightly. "Does my childhood qualify as being 'rough' now, Jason?"

Blushing slightly and with an apologetic look on his face, Jason mumbled a quick "sorry" before Harry started talking once more.

"Anyway, I survived the Dursleys for ten years before things started changing. Shortly after my 11th birthday, I got a letter inviting me to Hogwarts, and boy was Uncle Vernon less than thrilled…"

And so Harry told them of his life. He spoke of the reactions of his Aunt and Uncle to the invasion of the Magical World into their "normal" life. Of being given Dudley's second bedroom in an attempt to look good in the eyes of any potential magical watchers. He spoke of the mad dash across the countryside to try and escape the never ending supply of letters. He spoke of meeting Hagrid once again and his introduction to the Wizarding World and Diagon Alley. He spoke of Gringotts, of receiving Hedwig from Hagrid, of Platform 9 ¾, of meeting Ron and Hermione for the first time on the Hogwarts Express and of Draco Malfoy and his bookends. He told the Rangers and Zordon of his first sight of Hogwarts and his sorting and on through his first year, glossing over details of his daily life and just hitting on the clues they found that lead Harry to confronting Voldemort once again from the back of his Defense Professor's head.

"So wait," Zack interrupted his telling of the events in the third floor corridor. "This guy had a head growing out of the back of his head?"

Harry nodded. "Essentially. Professor Quirrell was being possessed by the spirit of Voldemort in an attempt to steal the Sorcerer's Stone that was hidden in the school. He wanted the stone so he could try and make himself a new body and return to attempting to conquer Magical Britain."

"So what happened to him?" Billy asked.

Harry smirked grimly. "I grabbed his face and he disintegrated."

He was met with blank looks and silence. Harry couldn't help but laugh.

"As it was explained to me, the protection my mother used on the night of her murder that still lingered in my blood was painful to Voldemort and any who housed his spirit. Quirrell's body was already falling apart just because he was housing a powerful spirit like he was, and the positive magic just overwhelmed him and his body gave out."

"So you killed him?" Jason asked, somehow not surprising Harry.

The mage nodded firmly. "He was the first servant of Voldemort I was forced to kill in my life, and unfortunately not the last…"

"Well hey, man, it's not like you had a choice," Zack commented, looking uneasily between Jason and Harry. "The guy was trying to kill you at the time, right? Self-defense."

Harry gave another weak smile. "You try explaining that to a traumatized eleven year old and let me know how it works out for you."

Shaking of his unease after a few moments, Harry jumped back into his story. He told the Rangers of Dobby the House Elf stealing his mail and ruining Vernon's business dinner. Of the Weasley rescue and life at the Burrow before they returned to Hogwarts. He spoke of the strange happenings in his second year: the voice only he could hear and the apparent return of the Heir of Slytherin. He told them how most of the school turned on him, believing that he had something to do with the attacks once it became known that he spoke Parseltongue. At least they did until Hermione was found petrified near the end of the school year. He told them of solving the mystery of the Chamber of Secrets and he and Ron taking their useless Defense Professor with them to try and confront the beast within.

"And you got bitten by this huge-ass snake?" Zack once more interjected, his eyes only growing wider when Harry nodded and pulled up his sleeve to show the circular scar on his upper arm.

"Yep, killed it though." Harry smiled, though it faltered when Trini and Kimberly both glared at him. Apparently they didn't find his, admittedly weak, joke very funny.

"So this time, it wasn't really the same Voldemort, was it?" Trini asked thoughtfully a moment later. "You said it was a memory preserved in a diary?"

Harry nodded and decided to once more get into some of the darker details. "Yeah. The diary was what is known as a Horcrux. It is a dark artifact wherein a dark wizard or witch seals a portion of their soul through means of a ritual that requires an act of absolute evil to perform. In Voldemort's case, he murdered someone in cold blood, thereby damaging his soul enough that a portion could be torn off to store in the Horcrux. He made the diary before he even left Hogwarts, though I didn't learn any of this for a few more years."

"To think that such evil exists even in other dimensions is truly a saddening thing." Zordon spoke calmly, his face reflecting his sorrow. "You are very brave for having faced such an evil, Harry."

"Thanks, Zordon, but that was hardly the end of it. We learned later, much later at that, that he actually made seven of the things, even if one was rather unintentional." Harry shook his head briefly. "But I'm getting ahead of myself, and the most interesting stuff is yet to come."

Harry soldiered on through the events of the summer of 1993. He spoke of his 'Aunt' Marge and her bulldogs and of blowing her up. He then quickly corrected himself by saying he inflated her when Jason looked ready to bust a vein at his casual mention of apparently killing an innocent, if Marge could ever be considered as such.

He told them of his pleasant summer spent in Diagon Alley and of learning about Sirius Black. He told them of the Dementors and idly reflected on the sense of tension and anticipation he had felt at this same time in his home dimension, wondering at this escaped convict that was once a friend of his parents and whether or not he would show up at Hogwarts. Moving on, Harry told the Rangers of Black's break in on Halloween, sparking a comment from Kimberly that he didn't seem to have a good history with the holiday. He told them of the events around Buckbeak's trial and Hermione's mysterious vanishing and reappearing acts throughout the year. And then he told them of the confrontation with the man allegedly responsible for his parents' murder.

"So Hermione and I busted into the upstairs bedroom in the Shrieking Shack to find Ron on the bed holding his broken leg and screaming about someone being an Animagus."

"What's an Animagus?" Billy asked immediately, as he had frequently when Harry used some new terminology.

Harry smiled at him slightly, unfortunately used to being interrupted for clarification at this point. "An Animagus is a witch or wizard who has gained the ability to take on the form and traits of an animal that represents their innermost self. Sirius black was one. Professor McGonagall was one. My father was even one."

"Prodigious!" Billy sounded awed as he stared. "Can you do it?"

Harry blushed lightly. "Ah… no, no I can't. I looked into the process once during the war, but it took more time than I had to spare just then. And it's not really a safe thing to try without someone to help reverse any accidents."

"Like what kind of accidents?" Zack asked, his head tilted to the side.

Harry snorted. "Like if I was a bird Animagus I could end up turning my arms into wings. I wouldn't be able to use my wand to turn myself back, so I would need another trained magical to reverse the Transfiguration."

Zack's eyes widened when he realized the problem. "Yeah, I doubt Rita would be willing to help you out there."

Harry rolled his eyes. "Likely not. Anyway, Hermione figured out that Black had to be the big dog that took Ron earlier and we spun around just as he slammed the door behind us. I don't remember all the specifics of the conversation, but basically Sirius was ranting and raving about actually committing the crime he had been imprisoned for. We couldn't figure out what he was talking about before Professor Lupin burst into the room, saw Hermione and I with our wands trained on the escaped convict, and then disarmed us immediately."

The Rangers went wide-eyed as Harry continued his story. "Yeah, we were rather surprised too, though no less than when Professor Snape showed up from under my Invisibility Cloak a bit later and tried to take us all back to the school as his prisoners. That man had some problems, let me tell you. Anyway, as it turns out, Sirius was my Godfather, and he had only broken out of Azkaban Prison after seeing a picture in the Daily Prophet newspaper by accident. The picture showed the Weasley family from when they won a cash award the previous summer. In the picture was Ron's pet rat, Scabbers."

"Ew! He had a pet rat!?" Kimberly nearly shrieked. "Don't they, like, pee on everything?"

Harry winced. "They do, but this one wasn't exactly an ordinary rat…"

"That hardly makes it better, man." Tommy said with an uneasy chuckle. "A rat is a rat…"

"Oh, just wait," Harry said. "It gets even more convoluted. So Sirius recognized Scabbers because he had grown up at Hogwarts seeing that rat nearly every day. He was convinced that it was his old friend, the believed to be deceased Peter Pettigrew that Sirius had been sent to prison without trial for killing. Just as Sirius was an Animagus that turned into a big black dog, Pettigrew was a rat Animagus."

"So that rat was really this Peter Pettigrew guy?" Jason asked, relaxing slightly when Harry nodded. "Why was Black after him?"

Taking a fortifying breath, Harry soldiered on. "You recall that I mentioned that my parents went into hiding under some rather powerful spells, yes? Well the strongest of those spells, the one that was supposed to be unbeatable, is called the Fidelius charm. This spell takes the knowledge of a location and hides it in the soul of another, a secret keeper. As long as the secret keeper doesn't speak the key phrase to reveal the location, an outside viewer could look right at it without ever even knowing it was there. The only true caveat to the spell, or so we believed, was that the secret keeper could not stay at the location full time themselves at the risk of destabilizing the spell, defeating the purpose of it in the first place. Otherwise one of my parents could have been the secret keeper and all of the trouble that followed could have been avoided.

"It was commonly known that my father and Sirius Black were the best of friends. It was also commonly known that Sirius was the secret keeper for my parents. So when the Fidelius was broken and my parents killed, Sirius was arrested and imprisoned as Voldemort's right hand man for the betrayal that led to their deaths. The issue there was that Sirius was not and had never been a Death Eater, nor was he the secret keeper in truth. It was all a ruse, a prank if you will as my father and Sirius were both pranksters at Hogwarts, in order to throw Voldemort off the trail of the real secret keeper: Peter Pettigrew."

"So the only way that Voldiwatsis could have found your parents is if Pettigrew gave them up?" Zack's voice had lost most all of its usual joviality.

Harry nodded solemnly. "That's what Sirius had assumed. He hadn't seen trace of Peter since well before the night my parents were murdered. He was actually arrested coming out of Peter's safe house and the arresting Aurors, the magical police if you will, couldn't find any sign of him in there. It was determined that Sirius must have killed him and vanished the body. That was another charge tacked onto Sirius's docket and the crime he had spoken of committing when we first confronted him.

"So Ron handed his rat, which had been struggling mightily the entire time I might add, over to Professor Lupin. The Professor had said he was just going to cast a spell to try and prove or disprove Sirius's words. Scabbers got free after a moment, but was hit with a reversal spell just before he could escape. Hermione, Ron, and I were quite surprised, let me tell you, but we were all surprised when the fat man that had just been Ron's pet rat suddenly burst into tears and started thanking Remus profusely and apologizing to Sirius and me almost at the same time."

"So they were ready to kill him, and he started thanking them?" Kimberly asked. "That doesn't quite sound right…"

Harry sighed. "You remember when I said it gets more convoluted, well just wait until you hear this. Apparently Peter had been captured by Voldemort and forced under some very powerful mind control magics to lead him to my parents' home. The magic of the Fidelius prevented him from being able to force Peter to tell him the secret, but he was able to work around this by having Peter physically lead him there while Voldemort himself wore a blindfold. Once they were past the ward boundaries, Voldemort removed the blindfold, forced him to change into his Animagus form, and cast several powerful compulsion charms on him that prevented him from changing back by himself and from doing anything overt to inform anyone of who and what he really was. Because of all this, Peter was forced to seek shelter with a known light family, the Weasleys, in the hopes that someone would be able to save him one day if they noticed anything odd. From what he said, he was hoping that sooner or later his abnormally long life span would help tip someone off."

"So he was innocent?" Trini asked, her mouth open slightly in horror at the thought.

Harry gave another nod. "He was used by Voldemort just as so many others had been. Sirius thought that Peter had been a willing spy, working for Voldemort all along. When he saw the picture of him with the Weasley family attached to an article that mentioned that Ron and I were friends, he assumed the worst and broke out of prison to try and save my life. Sirius was visibly confused by Peter's revelation and was completely unprepared to believe him until Peter made a magical vow on his life and magic as to the truth of his statement. If he had been lying about any of it, Peter would have dropped dead immediately as his own magic punished him for his falsehood."

"A vow like the one you made to Zordon?" Jason interjected. "Does that mean you could die if you break yours?"

Harry shook his head, looking slightly exasperated. "As I explained earlier, Jason, if I somehow willingly break my oath to Zordon I will only lose my magic as I only swore on my magic. Magical vows are not something to be taken lightly and so I only swore on what I had to in order to satisfy Zordon as to my sincerity and, as Zack put it, to remove what would make me a threat if I did break it. Peter's vow was on his very life, a good deal more serious in the grand scheme of things."

Harry paused a few more moments to see if anyone else had a comment before he continued. "Now ideally, things would have worked out well after that. Sirius and Peter could have turned themselves in at the Department of Magical Law Enforcement and gotten everything straightened out and I could have gone to live with my godfather. Unfortunately, Professor Lupin was a werewolf and there was a full moon that night."

"Wait," Zack said, looking shocked and a bit frightened. "A werewolf? Like a real turn on the full moon werewolf?"

"Yep," Harry responded, looking amused at the disbelief on the Ranger's face. "He was bitten as a child by a particularly ruthless were named Fenrir Greyback. Something about Lupin's father making him mad or something, I don't really remember. But anyway, Professor Lupin hadn't yet taken the potion that would have kept him from going feral when he transformed, instead having come after us to the Shrieking Shack, and so he went on a rampage that nearly caused the lot of us to get kissed by the Dementors on the grounds. I won't go into too much detail since it involves more time travel, but Hermione and I managed to ensure both that Buckbeak escaped his unfair execution and that Sirius and Peter managed to escape with him. Apparently the Minister for Magic came to the conclusion, no doubt influence by Snape as he had taken credit for capturing the 'dangerous criminal' Sirius Black, that Peter was an imposter and an accomplice and was therefore equally guilty of any crimes committed by black. The man always was gullible and readily followed anyone who pointed him in the direction of the greatest increase in his public approval ratings. He arranged for Sirius and Peter to have the Dementor's kiss administered as soon as possible to avoid any more bad press. In the aftermath, Professor Lupin was forced to quit as Snape had let it slip that he was a werewolf out of bitterness. Lupin took the time to finally tell me a bit about my parents, as he had known them in school, and a bit more about the group he had formed with my father. They called themselves the Marauders: Moony, Lupin; Wormtail, Pettigrew; Padfoot, Sirius; and Prongs, my father. They were so named because of the Professor's disease and the others' Animagus forms. My dad was a stag and was named after what I've been told was a rather impressive set of antlers.

"After all that was over, it was only a few short weeks before I was back at the Dursleys once again…" Harry continued on to speak of the rising trouble in the Wizarding world and his own life. From his dark dreams of Voldemort regaining power aided by a shadowed figure to his entrance into the Triwizard Tournament. He explained about the First Task and his game of aerial tag with a dragon and the Yule Ball, glossing over his trouble with finding a date as best he could, though Zack took a particular pleasure in grilling him over it. He told them of the Second Task under the Black Lake and the Third task in the Maze that lead to a graveyard in Little Hangleton where his fellow Triwizard competitor, Cedric Diggory, had been killed and Voldemort was resurrected with the help of Barty Crouch Junior and Lucius Malfoy. There had been some rather amusing looks when he detailed the ritual used to revive the Dark Lord, particularly when he reached the part where Barty cut off his own hand.

Harry's fifth year was largely uneventful after some initial trouble with Dementors and underage magic trials. With Voldemort keeping himself under the radar after his resurrection, everyone was convinced that Harry was delusional and he was getting flack for it. At the same time, the ministry had appointed a Senior Auror to teach the defense class in an ill-fated attempt at controlling the situation at the school better. The problem there was that Kingsley Shacklebolt was both firmly on Dumbledore's side and one of the best defense teachers that Hogwarts had ever hosted. Much of what Harry learned in that class would go on to serve him well both during his future training and when he fully joined the war against Voldemort.

The end of the year, however, brought yet more heartache to Harry's life.

"I woke from the vision with a mad plan. I was prepared to charge to London myself to try and save Sirius from Voldemort, but Hermione managed to convince me to do at least a little bit of checking first. Unfortunately for me, what checking we did only made me more determined to go. So, along with Hermione, Ron, Neville, Ginny, and Luna, I flew to London on some thestrals, a kind of magical horse like creature, and traveled through the Ministry of Magic and down to the Hall of Prophecy. Once we got there, it became all too apparent that it was a trap. Especially once the Death Eaters stepped out of hiding and tried to order me to hand over one specific Prophecy Orb. Apparently they couldn't take it themselves or risk running afoul of the magical protections."

Harry found himself choked up at this point. Even after so many years, the battle that followed and its ultimate end were still difficult for him to speak of. Finally, Trini leaned forward and placed a comforting hand on his knee. Looking up into her eyes, Harry couldn't help but return the reassuring smile she wore, if only slightly. After a few more moments, Harry was able to gather himself enough to continue, telling the Rangers about the ill-fated battle in the Department of Mysteries. How each of his friends was injured, nearly killed in a few cases, all because they decided to follow him on a fool's errand. How the Order had arrived to help at the last minute and how Sirius had been killed during the fight, the sole casualty on either side.

Haltingly, he spoke of his anger as he chased after Sirius's murderer, Bellatrix LeStrange, and how he tried to finish her in his rage. He spoke of Voldemort's arrival and the awe he felt at watching the duel between the Dark Lord and Dumbledore. He spoke of Dumbledore's reveal of the prophecy that the Death Eaters had been after and what it meant for Harry and the Wizarding World in general.

"Either must die at the hand of the other, for neither can live while the other survives." Harry intoned solemnly. "Those words defined my life, for I never really got to live my life until after the war was over…" He snorted slightly before letting out a few self-depreciating chuckles. "Hell, even after it was over, I only really got a month or so to try and get myself together before everything fell apart again…"

The Rangers exchanged looks, worry and confusion in their eyes as they did so until Harry pulled himself together again. He told them of his sixth year at Hogwarts and how Dumbledore finally decided to tell him of his theory as to how Voldemort had survived. He told them of Dumbledore's lessons on the history of Tom Riddle and how he believed it would help lead them to these Horcruxes. He spoke of how he had insisted that they burn through the memories Dumbledore had gathered in a single week before all but demanding that Dumbledore start teaching him something useful.

"I pointed out that if he expected me to be able to beat Voldemort, I could hardly beat his fifty plus years of magical experience with a typical Hogwarts Education. It took some doing, but Dumbledore finally agreed to start with some more advanced tuition. He brought in Moody, making extra sure it was the real one this time, along with Shacklebolt when he was available, and a few other Order members on rotation and they trained me in combat magics as best they could along with my wandless magic skills and whatever tactical knowledge I could gain. I spent the rest of my sixth year training under them while Voldemort, now ousted to the public, restarted his campaign to take over Magical Britain.

"The lessons continued, though in a lesser form, when I went back to the Dursleys before my seventh year. On my 17th birthday, the protections on the house failed and the Order managed to ambush and capture over a dozen Death Eaters that tried to capitalize on it. Unfortunately for them, the Dursleys had left more than a month before and I had been moved to a safe house shortly afterwards. The only way that it could have gone better for us is if the Death Eaters hadn't been broken out of the Ministry's new prison less than a week later when Voldemort raided the facility."

Harry shook his head once more before looking at each of the Rangers sadly. "There was so much of that war that could have been prevented but for the stupidity and lack of action on the part of the Ministry of Magic. Amelia Bones, the head of the DMLE, was a good woman, probably one of the best we could have had in that position, but even before she was killed she was handicapped by the Minister and his Senior Undersecretary, a vile woman named Delores Umbridge. The same woman, by the way, who was most directly responsible for my arrest, imprisonment, and execution order after the war was over."

The silence that followed lasted only a moment before Harry once more gathered himself and pushed on through his tale. He spoke of his seventh year at Hogwarts and how he had to be convinced by his friends and the Order members to actually attend. Harry had been convinced that his time would be better spent fully preparing himself for the fight to come, but ultimately he went to the school. His training had continued alongside his schoolwork and regular meetings with Dumbledore. These meetings largely consisted of discussions with the elderly headmaster, but as the year progressed they became more and more about dueling practice. The headmaster may have looked old, but he was still more than a match for the much more energetic and mobile Harry. The sheer number of spells that Harry's massive magical reserves allowed him to put out were balanced by Dumbledore's experience and spell knowledge, not to mention boosted by the power of the Elder Wand.

"You mean the same Elder Wand that Rita has right now?" Zack asked.

Harry nodded. "One and the same. As you all know, with the possible exception of Tommy, it is an artifact of tremendous power that amplifies the power of spells cast through it several times over. Dumbledore had won it from an old friend of his turned Dark Lord that he defeated in his younger days. He kept it safe throughout his life and its allegiance stayed with him until the day I managed to disarm him in a duel a few months after I graduated from Hogwarts. Damn near knocked him arse over teakettle at the same time too." Harry chuckled slightly, remembering the shocked yet proud look on his old Headmaster's face when Harry had bested him. They had had their differences throughout the time they had known each other, the problems with Dumbledore's ideology the least of them, but he still had a certain feeling of respect and camaraderie for the man.

Once more bringing himself back to point, Harry continued. "So the Horcrux hunt had gone rather well. The diary I destroyed back in my second year turned out to be the first one Tom made, as I mentioned earlier. While Dumbledore was studying it, one of the castle house elves made a passing comment on how it felt similar to the 'bad magic in the Come and Go Room.' This lead Dumbledore to finding another of the Horcruxes within Hogwarts itself. Sometime during my sixth year, Dumbledore also took a few members of the Order with him to follow a lead to another one, but it turned out to be a fake. We later discovered the real Horcrux, a locket, in the house I inherited from my Godfather. Apparently, Sirius's brother, Regulus, had been a Death Eater, but had a change of heart and stole the locket Horcrux before he was killed. The final free Horcrux was hidden in Gringotts bank and the Order was able to negotiate with the Goblins that ran it to destroy it in exchange for a sizable amount of money. The Goblins wanted nothing to do with the war directly, but they understood just what it would mean should Voldemort really win. Even still, they weren't willing to do anything for free, especially when it was asked by a wizard."

Harry paused again to collect his thoughts before continuing. "A few months after I disarmed Dumbledore, he asked me, along with Hermione and Ron who had also been receiving training with the Order, to accompany him on a mission to find another Horcrux. He believed this one to be in a shack that once belonged to Tom's maternal line. Since Parseltongue was a strong trait in that line, he thought that my ability to speak it would help out and wanted Ron and Hermione there to back me up if needed. We arrived at the shack and I managed to talk our way past an animated snake skeleton on the doorway. Dumbledore found the Horcrux, a ring, and we barely acted in time to stop him from putting it on. As it turned out, the stone on the ring was actually the Resurrection Stone, like the wand and my cloak. Dumbledore had been searching for it for most of his life and his own desire coupled with compulsions on the ring had handily overwhelmed him."

"So does that mean that you had all those Deathly Hallows at once then?" Billy asked suddenly. "Since you already had the cloak and your headmaster had the wand, once you acquired the stone that would mean you had the full set."

Harry blinked for a moment before smiling slightly. "You know, I never really thought about it, but I suppose we did. Huh… go figure…" His expression quickly fell after a moment though. "In any case, it didn't last long. When we went to leave, Voldemort was outside waiting for us. He commended us on tracking down one of his Horcruxes, but told us that we wouldn't be leaving there alive so it made little difference." Harry swallowed again, fighting back his tears as he remembered the events that followed. "Dumbledore passed me the ring and advised me to look into the Tale of the Three Brothers, a popular children's story, before he faced off against Tom. He held him off long enough for us to get away, and it cost him his life."

Kimberly and Trini had tears streaming down their cheeks now at the sadness in Harry's voice while the boys looked decidedly uncomfortable. Harry, having been through it personally, was more readily able to hide the emotions, but it was still clear enough that he was feeling the pain of his mentor's loss all over again.

Finally, Harry recovered enough to speak again. "The months that followed were hard. Not only was the Order reeling from Dumbledore's death, but Voldemort apparently took it as a sign that the war was all but won. We were fairly certain that he had heard Dumbledore's last words to me and figured out just what wand he held, a thought that was confirmed during later confrontations with him when he bragged about it, and only took greater encouragement from it. I don't even know if he realized that we had destroyed nearly all his Horcruxes until I told him as much during our final fight…

"In any case, it was six months before Voldemort finally took over the Ministry of Magic. Six months of training and missions. Of hard fought battles and costly losses for both sides. Unfortunately, my friends and I spent more time training than anything else. Because of the prophecy and our comparative youth, the senior members of the Order decided to keep us more in reserve, both because they didn't want us to have to fight and because I was, arguably, too important to risk on just any old mission because of my apparent destiny as the only one who could kill Voldemort. It was more frustrating than anything I've ever really had to do.

"Then, a few months after he took over the ministry, we got word that Tom had decided to do something absolutely, monstrously stupid. He was prepared to break the Statute of Secrecy and take his war to the muggles. Hermione was the first to realize the implications of this. She knew and explained to the rest of us just what would happen if the non-magicals learned of a hidden society of magic users and their first public contact was in the form of a terrorist killing indiscriminately. Something like that could only result in total war and the ultimate genocide of magicals everywhere.

"The way Hermione put it, fear would drive the muggles to respond with force, as all humans are often wont to do. Whether or not Voldemort understood this fact, his arrogance prevented him from realizing just what that force would have resulted in. The fact that our fears of the outcome were all but confirmed by Luna, who had more than a hint of seer's talent, meant that we had no other choice but to take him out before he made his move."

Harry met each of their eyes again, stopping at last with Zordon who gave him an encouraging nod, his eyes solemn in understanding. "We had to move fast and strike hard. We gathered all the allies we had and raided the Ministry Building in the early hours of July the 9th, 1999. The Death Eaters on guard were overwhelmed easily and we got into the building only to find Voldemort and the rest of his followers waiting on us. I never figured out how he knew we were coming, but the fight that followed is still a blur at this point. I remember spending most of the battle facing off against Tom directly. I remember him taunting me about the Elder Wand and how I was powerless to stand against him so long as he had it. I distinctly remember his rage when one of the Order members managed to kill his familiar, which also happened to be what we thought was his last Horcrux."

"You thought?" Billy asked. "So he had another one?" Everyone was leaning closer, save for Zordon who couldn't for obvious reasons, as Harry built toward the obvious climax of his tale. The anticipation in the air was nearly tangible.

Harry just nodded with a tiny wince. "Yeah, though even he didn't know it. We didn't even find out until he hit me with another Avada Kedavra curse. I died, but instead of passing on, the tiny fragment of his soul that was housed in my scar and made me an accidental Horcrux was removed and I once more survived the unsurvivable killing curse." Harry gave a soft chuckle. "I have to say that the look on his face when I stood back up again was more than a little satisfying. Apparently the entire battle had stopped when I went down, and seeing me climb back to my feet again both inspired my allies and horrified and demoralized the Death Eaters.

"Without the corrupting influence of Voldemort's scar tainting my magical signature, the Elder Wand flat out stopped working for Tom. From what I remember of Hermione's theory, the bit of his soul on my scar was all that let the wand even come close to working against me in the first place since I had won the allegiance of the wand when I disarmed Dumbledore nearly a year beforehand. Once the soul fragment was gone, the wand just wouldn't work against me anymore. I took advantage of it and cast what I sincerely hope to be the only killing curse that will ever cross my lips with intent to cast and finished the Second Blood War and gained a new title: the Man-Who-Won."

Harry sat back, having leaned forward as he spoke, and stretched slightly as the Rangers, Zordon, and Alpha seemed to process what he had told them. It was the robot though that broke the silence. "And what happened after that, Harry? Your story still doesn't explain how you came to be with us today."

And so Harry spoke of the month following the end of the war. Of how he tried to relax and recover, feeling peace for quite possibly the first time in his life, only to remain ignorant of the trouble brewing in the Ministry. He told them of Delores Umbridge's seizure of power and her Ministerial Decree for the Prevention of Megalomaniacal Acts. He spoke of the betrayal by Ron that led to his arrest and the subsequent farce of a trial and sentencing. He choked up slightly as he spoke of Hedwig's murder and smiled in satisfaction at his own extraction of vengeance against all those who turned against him. He told them briefly of his conversation with death and his ultimate arrival in their dimension, which lead directly into Rita and Goldar ambushing him and stealing the wand, which then lead to their own first meeting.

"And that's how it was." Harry finished with a sigh and a smile. "So, any questions?"

Harry was banking on the Rangers all being too overwhelmed to really have anything to ask. He himself was feeling a bit raw having to remember his less than pleasant past, though he was nonetheless happy that he had taken the step to share it with his new allies and, dare he suggest it, friends.

He should have known better though.

Zack gave him a wicked smile, practically dripping with mischief, before speaking. "There were a few details that you were a bit light on there, Harry. I could use some more info if you don't mind."

Harry groaned while the other Rangers shot Zack looks of curiosity. "I'm going to regret this. I can feel it… What do you want to know, Zack?"

"Well," Zack started, the amusement in his eyes never fading. "You mentioned the dance thing you had to go to in your fourth year and that you went with a classmate of yours. I got the feeling that nothing much came from that afterwards, but you can't expect us to believe that you spent all those years in a coed school and never had a single girlfriend, can you?"

Harry's face almost immediately went bright red. "Ah… well… you see, Zack… er… That's a bit complicated…"

Seeing Harry on his proverbial back foot, Zack pressed on with a huge smile on his face. "Oh? How so?" At this point, Jason, Billy, and Tommy were smothering their laughter at the Magi Ranger's embarrassment while Kimberly and Trini looked interested, though not much less amused than the others. Alpha, probably sensing that the time for serious talk was all but over, turned back to one of the computer consoles while Zordon merely chuckled good-naturedly.

Harry flinched slightly. "Well… you see… I was more than a little famous, as I said, with the whole Boy-Who-Lived thing… There were a few girls who were interested in me just for that… Wasn't interested in fan girls…" Harry knew he was rambling at this point, but his own embarrassment and the eager and amused faces before him kept him from stopping. "On top of that was my general social awkwardness from being raised by the Dursleys and… a few other complications…" At this Harry looked down and away from the others, closing his eyes tightly as his embarrassment fully overwhelmed him. After a moment, he shook his head violently and turned back to face Zack.

"And besides!" Harry near shouted. "If you hadn't picked it up, Zack. I was more than a little busy with fighting a freaking war! I didn't have a lot of extra time for dating and such with that on my plate!"

Zack waved one hand lazily in the air. "Yeah, yeah. What about that Hermione chick? You mentioned her several times. Did you two have a thing going on?"

Harry's face slipped into a fond smile as he thought about his best friend. "Hermione and I never dated. Were we close? Yes. Could we have ended up with a relationship? Maybe. I guess I'll never find out now, and those same complications still apply…"

Harry trailed off again and Zack once more sprang on the perceived opening. "Just what kind of complications are you talking about here, Harry?"

Harry leveled a flat, irritated look at the Black Ranger before flicking his wand. "Do me a favor and stop talking for a moment. Moving on, does anyone else have any questions? Preferably not questions about highly personal details of my private life." Zack tried to speak up again, to insist that he wasn't finished with his own line of questions, but found himself unable due to the silencing spell Harry had cast on him. "If you're a good boy I'll remove the spell before we leave here, alright?" Harry told him, smirking slightly as the other Rangers laughed at their comrade while Zack just pouted, his eyes still twinkling with good humor.

Seeing that none of the other Rangers seemed to have any further questions, Harry stood once more, stretching as he cautiously tested the strength of his legs and his sense of balance. Finding that he was able to remain vertical and stable, he offered his hands to the two ladies sitting before them to help them up. "Well, as much fun as this is, I am exhausted."

Kimberly smiled as she took his offered hand. "Yeah, it probably is getting a bit late, isn't it?"

"What do you mean?" Trini asked as she too accepted Harry's help with a tiny blush, checking the time on her communicator as she stood. "It's only a little after 5…"

Kimberly turned to face the other Rangers as she stretched. "Maybe so, but I was lucky to get off with just a warning after getting home so late last night. I don't want to risk it by missing dinner today."

After that it was only a matter of minutes before the Rangers had all said their goodbyes and teleported back to Angel Grove. When Harry was the sole human left in the Command Center he wished Alpha and Zordon a good night before heading to his room to turn in early. Getting the crap kicked out of him and his first time using his new powers had wiped him out more than he had anticipated.

Just as he reached his door, however, Zordon spoke. "Thank you once again, Harry, for sharing that with us. I know it could not have been easy for you. Rest well, Magi Ranger, for once you have fully recovered I shall begin your tutelage in the Morphing Grid Power you now wield. There is much for you to learn."

Harry nodded his thanks, muffling a yawn as his body started to slow down, before making his way into his room and closing the door. He took only enough time to wave his wand, transfiguring his clothing into something more appropriate for sleeping in, before collapsing onto his cot, asleep almost before he was fully settled.

-MR-

Thanks for reading and don't forget to review!

Tenstar12


	21. Chapter 21

Magi Ranger

By: Tenstar12

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or Power Rangers.

 **Chapter 21, In Which the Rangers Have Downtime, and Then See a Turtle**

"Ready one."

Ready position.

"And… punch two."

Right foot forward. Punch with right fist. "Kiai!"

"Block three."

Right arm vertical.

"Punch four."

Right fist back to ready position. Punch with left fist.

"Back, and…"

Rise up and pivot on left foot, turn around and land in ready position. "Kiai!"

"Step six."

Left foot forward. Punch with left fist.

"Block seven."

Left arm vertical.

"Punch eight."

Punch with right fist.

"Back nine."

Right fist back. Pivot torso and place left palm on right fist.

"High block ten."

Pivot back. Left forearm horizontal near forehead with right fist at ready position.

"Punch eleven."

Punch with right fist. Left arm back to ready position.

"Step up twelve, and…"

Rise up and pivot on left foot, turn around and land in ready position. "Kiai!"

It had hardly taken any time at all for Harry to get into the groove of Jason's Karate class. Despite his initial misgivings, he actually found most of it to be rather interesting, if not exactly the easiest thing he had ever done from a physical standpoint. But if nothing else, Harry was used to hard work and sore muscles, so he managed to get by.

It also didn't hurt that Rita had been completely silent in the two weeks and some change since Tommy had been freed from her control and joined the Rangers. Jason and the others had been more than happy with the down time, taking the chance to relax a bit since they didn't have to worry about the struggle to save the Earth as much. For his part, Harry couldn't help feeling a bit jumpy as more and more time passed without any activity from her. After all this time and all he'd been through, Harry just didn't have the same naiveté and innocence that the others did.

Harry had joined the Karate class a few days after Rita went quiet, on a Saturday, as that was when most of Jason's beginner classes were held. There had been a bit of a tense moment when it came time for Harry to pay for his place in the class. Since he had only had his job at the Youth Center for a bit over two weeks at that point, his first check was a bit short to cover all the necessary fees. The other Rangers had, of course, offered to loan him some cash, but he had stubbornly held out. In the end, a quick trip to the park and a wide area summoning charm (followed by a trip to a bank to change the numerous formerly lost coins into paper bills) had eased the burden enough that with a bit of magic to transfigure his own Gi instead of buying one, he was able to pay.

Once he was officially enrolled, he spent his first lesson learning the very basics of form: how to punch and kick properly without hurting yourself, the most basic ready stance, and how to move with a fall to help decrease the chances of injury. The other Rangers had been more than helpful in their tutoring of him throughout the week so that by the time his next Saturday lesson started, Harry was moving with the grace and speed of someone who had been practicing for much longer than he actually had, much to his own surprise.

When he brought up this extreme learning curve, Zordon had reminded Harry of his connection to the Grid and how it would improve his rate of information retention and muscle memory development in regard to his fighting skills. It had certainly helped ease his nerves as his unnaturally quickly developing reflexes had thrown Harry off at first. He was actually more surprised that more of the other students hadn't approached him about how skilled he appeared to have become in so short a time, but the few that mentioned it seemed to explain it away themselves with the extra teachings they had seen him getting from several known acquaintances of their teacher.

And if that was how they wanted to explain it, then Harry wasn't going to try and convince them otherwise.

At the same time as his martial arts tuition was going on, Zordon had started Harry on learning to control his Grid Power. They had begun with a great deal of meditation and learning to access and manipulate the mote of energy within himself. It was a much more complicated process than just pulling up the Power and letting it guide him as he had been doing.

He needed to learn to instruct the Power on what he wanted done as opposed to surrendering total control to it. It was more similar to Harry's own magic than his limited experience with Grid magic thus far, and yet still different enough to cause issue.

If there was one plus to his lessons though, aside from the more obvious learning to use his new power, it was that he had gotten a further explanation for the seemingly random gesticulation he had noticed multiple times since joining the Rangers in their battles. Apparently, those seemingly nonsensical hand and body movements were caused by the grid because they were vital components to utilizing the Power. Zordon had likened them to Harry's own wand movements, though more along the lines of gathering the Power as opposed to guiding it to the appropriate spell effect. More importantly to Harry, the movements would become less and less necessary as the wielder grew more experienced.

This was something that Harry was rather happy to hear, as the currently necessary motions to prepare even the simplest of spells left him feeling rather stupid.

His suffering would continue with the poses and declarations though, those were just because the Grid liked the showboating.

Among the first lessons Zordon taught him after learning to access the Power was how to determine his specialty. Apparently Rita specialized in magics of destruction and various rituals, quite fitting for a psycho who wanted to conquer/destroy the Earth. Zordon, when he had been free from his time warp prison, had been rather capable with illusions and various mind magics. This tied in with his own physical fighting prowess and lead to him being more of a stealth fighter when possible.

Of course, these specializations were on top of typical general use spells. Harry had compared them to the various branches of magics he was familiar with from his own home world and how he had been particularly apt at learning and using more combat oriented spells while others had been better with certain types of Charms or Transfiguration. A comparison that Zordon accepted, though he had little to go on other than Harry's own insistence that similarities existed.

In any case, after a battery of tests where Harry spent most of his time channeling Grid Power for Zordon to examine, it came to light that Harry leaned toward what Zordon called Kinetic Magics. These spells affected motion and force. Some of the highest level Kinetic spells that the wizened mage had heard of could be used to allow the caster to fly under their own power.

This was a prospect that Harry was more than ready to explore.

However, magical flight would have to wait as Harry still had a long list of basics to learn and master before he could even begin to attempt the simplest of kinetic magics.

And so Harry had had a rather busy few weeks. With his initial success in the beginners' Karate class, Jason had given Harry clearance to join up with his regular lessons after his second Saturday lesson. He was scheduled to join short, one hour classes on Tuesday and Thursday afternoons, and a longer one on Saturday mornings. With this, along with additional instruction from the other Rangers that he had been talked into continuing, Harry was confident that he would be able to physically defend himself well enough to get by in one or two months.

His Grid magic skills, while not increasing at nearly the same speed as his martial arts ability, were still growing all the time.

On top of his training, Harry had started putting in more and more hours working at the Youth Center. After his money issues revolving around the Karate class, he was a bit more eager to get some financial stability going, and until he could get back into disenchanting his Galleons with his new wand, the Youth Center was his best source of income. Ernie had been more than generous with his curiously lenient working schedule, but he was equally happy to have Harry there every day they were open. So that's what Harry did.

He would wake up in the Command Center each morning, eat a quick breakfast, tend to his morning routine, and then spend the first several hours of his day in meditation and training with Zordon. Once the clock hit two in the afternoon, Harry would teleport to the Youth Center and spend the next few hours working to help set things up for the after school rush. Jason and the other Rangers, sometimes including Tommy and sometimes not, would show up after school let out and Harry would excuse himself to change into his Gi. On those days he had class, Harry would join Jason's other students. When Jason was teaching a different group, Harry would spend time training with the other Rangers, usually Zack and Trini since they were more skilled in martial arts than Kimberly and Billy. On the days Tommy came along he would occasionally give a bit of advice, but he largely kept to his own devices unless someone specifically asked for his input.

When the class ended, Harry would change back into his regular clothes and spend another few hours working. He typically stayed until most of the crowd had left and helped Ernie with cleaning things up a bit before leaving him to close for the night and going back to the Command Center. It was a somewhat grueling schedule, especially at first, but Harry was finding himself growing accustomed to it even after only really being on it for a week.

Harry snapped his mind out of the slight daze he had adopted as Jason led the class through the kata they were studying when the Red Ranger called his name. "Harry! Come up here for a second."

Raising an eyebrow curiously, Harry made his way from his spot in the middle of the pack to stand next to Jason. "Alright, copy me." Jason almost immediately started moving, calling out the same steps of the kata they had just been doing and leaving Harry to scramble to get into form.

After running through the entire thing, twice, Jason nodded sharply, his brow slightly furrowed. "Not bad, Harry. Make sure you're concentrating on your footwork, though. You were a little out of position a few times."

Harry was confused. As far as he could tell his feet had been right where they were supposed to be, but Jason was the teacher after all. With an internal sigh, he gave Jason a small bow before returning to his spot in the class as Jason spoke once more. "Alright everyone, good job today. I'll be seeing you all next week." After a bow to his class, returned by them all, Jason dismissed them.

With his third ever Saturday class over, Harry turned and jogged to the Youth Center's locker rooms, grabbed a quick shower and changed back into his street clothes before taking his place once more behind the juice bar. Ernie was a bit swamped by the released students and their families and eagerly welcomed Harry's help.

An hour or so later, Zack came in to the Youth Center, bouncing a basketball as he went. Harry noted his presence, but quickly turned his attention back to the stovetop he was working at, idly prodding the hamburger patties Ernie had set him to cooking for Bulk and Skull. The two bullies were sitting at a table a short distance away from the counter, watching the various teens using the exercise equipment around the Youth Center and mocking them occasionally.

His concentration on his cooking was broken by the jubilant voice of the Black Ranger as Zack eased himself onto a stool across the counter from Harry. "So, how's it going there, ah… Ranger-Who-Flipped-Patties?"

Harry groaned slightly. In the days following his telling of his past, all of the Rangers had had further questions for him. He had fielded questions on his classes, Quidditch, his friends and dorm mates, Hogwarts itself, some of the battles he had fought, and even a few more detailed questions on his life with the Dursleys, but Zack had always been the one to ask the most seemingly nonsensical ones. It seemed that Harry now knew the reason behind Zack's questions about his title, both before and after ending the war.

"Zack," Harry sighed. "Aside from the fact that that is an absolutely horrible name, I can practically hear they hyphens in your speech. Cut it out before I have to curse you."

Zack merely laughed, a sly look forming on his face. "Oh, and what kind of curse would we be talking about? You really can't do too much here in public."

Seeing that the burgers were in no danger of burning for a bit, Harry turned to face him, noting the presence of Angela, the girl that Zack had declared the love of his life, as she walked into the Youth Center. He smirked. "Oh, I could think of a few. For example, I could use a babbling hex on you. You would be completely unable to stop talking about the most random things no matter how hard you tried. Then I could couple it with a compulsion charm to make you unerringly seek out Angela's company. Best part is that at this range, I could cast both spells without anyone seeing them. That would certainly be an interesting combination, wouldn't you say?"

Zack's eyes widened before he spun on his stool, seeing Angela on the Youth Center Gym floor, and spun back around, laughing uneasily now. "Ah, well, we wouldn't want that then, would we?"

Harry smiled at the Ranger before turning back to the stove. With deft movements, Harry took the patties off the stove and assembled the two fully dressed burgers on their plates, placed the plates on a tray, and took it over to the counter next to Zack. "Bulk! Skull!" he called to the two. "Order up!"

With hunger dancing in his eyes, Bulk shoved himself away from the small table, coincidentally pushing it into Skull as he did and knocking the skinnier teen down. With a swagger in his step that was more comical than anything else, Bulk made his way to the counter.

"It's about time you got these done!" He snapped, giving Harry a sneer.

"Yeah!" Skull parroted, having climbed back to his feet and run up next to Bulk. "It's about time!"

Rolling his eyes, Harry pushed the tray over to the two. "They get done when they get done, guys. I can't speed up the cooking process without ruining the food."

Bulk squinted slightly, looking somewhat constipated in Harry's mind, before speaking again. "You know you should be giving us better service than this! We're famous, you know!"

Zack let out a short bark of laughter. "You two? Famous? Give me a break."

Harry couldn't help but agree, but before he could comment, Bulk rounded on the other teen. "Damn right we're famous! We helped the Power Rangers chase off that big gold guy a few weeks ago. They even interviewed us for the news!"

Zack leaned back slightly and turned his face away from Bulk, shooting Harry a look of incredulity. "You know, I think I saw that interview, Bulk. Didn't they say that you guys were taken hostage and then saved by the mysterious cloaked figure that's been spotted helping the Power Rangers a few times?"

Bulk jerked back quickly, his face turning red in embarrassment before he tried to cover it up with bluster. "Well then the news guys got it wrong! We were right there in the thick of it with the Rangers and if it weren't for us, they wouldn't have won!"

"Yeah, right in the thick of it!" Skull shouted, nearly climbing on top of Bulk in his effort to stare Zack down.

Harry just rolled his eyes again. "Well, whatever the case, why don't you guys just take your burgers and move on. I have other orders to fill."

Bulk spun to face Harry again, knocking Skull off balance as he did. The flailing teen, accidentally smacked his hand into the back of Bulk's head, somehow propelling him forward and face first into the two Burgers Harry had just finished making for them.

As the overweight teen slowly rose up, bits of bread and tomato liberally covered in ketchup and mustard stuck to his face, Zack started laughing again. "Well," he said through his chuckles. "That's one way to do it."

Nearly growling, Bulk took the tray with the now squashed hamburgers in one hand and grabbed Skull by his jacket with the other. Dragging Skull behind him, Bulk went back to their table and plopped down in his seat before starting in on his deformed meal.

Harry was shaking his head as Zack's laughter died. "You know," he mused. "I really don't understand how that always happens."

"What's that?" Zack asked after he calmed down.

Harry waved his hand toward the food covered teen, now fending off Skull as he tried to get his own burger off the tray. Apparently Bulk was going to eat both as payback for Skull knocking him into the food. "How Bulk and Skull always end up either knocking something over or getting covered in various foodstuffs. I mean, seriously, every single day they come in here, either one or the other happens!"

"That's not necessarily true," Ernie interjected as he walked up from behind Harry, nodding to Zack in greeting. "Sometimes they get covered in paint or something. Not edible."

Harry smiled at Ernie's good natured jab. "My point stands though. How and why?"

Harry, my man." Zack said with an easy smile, leaning over the counter to rest one hand on Harry's shoulder. "Some mysteries are better left unsolved."

Harry snorted briefly before turning back to the stove and starting to scrub the residue from the burger patties off. He only got a few strokes in before Zack once more spoke. "So I had a reason for coming over here actually."

Harry half turned toward him, showing the Ranger his raised eyebrow. "Oh? So you weren't just here to make up stupid names for me then?"

Ernie coughed slightly, an intrigued look on his face, but Zack soldiered on. "Nope. I wanted to see if you wanted to join the guys and me in the park for some b-ball."

Harry finished cleaning the stovetop before turning to face Zack, idly tossing his cleaning rag between his hands. "I don't know Zack, I'm not really a basketball kind of guy. I don't think I've ever even played to tell the truth."

"Come on, man," Zack was near pleading now. "Even Tommy is going to be there, at least until he has to head off to his Karate practice. You've just gotta come!"

"I think you should go, Harry." Ernie said suddenly, bringing Harry out of his thoughts and making Zack smile. "You've been spending too much time around here lately. I know that you need the money and are more than willing to help out, but you should spend more time with your friends. Get yourself some fresh air before it gets too cold outside to do it anymore. We're already more than halfway through September, and this time of year we won't get too many more clear days like today."

"Yeah, come on, Harry!" Zack cheered, nearly dancing in his seat as he saw Harry's resistance fade.

Finally, Harry sighed and pulled off his cooking apron before handing it to Ernie. "Fine, but I go under protest." The smile that took over Zack's face sparked off a similar one on his own as the Ranger danced over to the others, presumably to inform them of Harry's attendance.

"Go on and get yourself cleaned up, Harry." Ernie said, patting Harry on the shoulder as he took the cleaning rag from him. "I'll finish up here. You just go out and have some fun."

Harry sighed, wondering what he had just gotten himself into as he headed over to the sink to wash up.

-MR-

As it turned out, he got himself into getting schooled in basketball.

Oh yes, school was in session and the Zack-man was the teacher!

And Zack had been saying that so much since the group had arrived at the courts in the park that Harry was now narrating it to himself in his head!

Harry groaned as he shook himself slightly, idly watching from the sidelines as Jason tried, and failed, to block yet another shot from the Black Ranger. The Magi Ranger found himself sitting on a picnic table bench next to Billy with Kimberly and Trini sitting on the table top behind them, watching as the Red and Black Rangers tested their basketball skills against each other. Tommy was standing behind the goal, both to help retrieve the ball as necessary and because he was the next scheduled to take the court against the incredibly skilled Zack.

Not that Harry felt his attempt should really even count. He hadn't even been on the court for more than a few minutes before Zack realized he hadn't been kidding when he said he had never played before. The next several minutes had been spent with Zack and the others giving him various pointers on how to properly dribble and shoot the ball before they unanimously decided to just show him how it was done, resulting in the current arrangement.

All in all, he preferred Quidditch. Give him a flying broomstick and a Golden Snitch and Harry would show Zack how to play a REAL game.

Harry tuned back into the game in time to hear Zack taunting Jason again. "Now it's time for my slamma-jamma, double-whamma, hip hop it 'cuz you can't stop it, big disgrace 'cuz it's in your face, long shot." The moment he finished speaking, Zack snapped up the ball and jumped into the air, almost easily getting his shot past Jason's attempted block and sinking yet another three-pointer.

Harry groaned again and leaned slightly toward Trini. "I really don't know what's worse: the fact that he's winning so easily, or the fact that he's so casually taunting everyone as he does so."

Trini smiled at him, trying and failing to fight down a giggle at the dejected look on his face as she patted his shoulder comfortingly. "Don't worry about it Harry, I guess basketball just isn't your sport."

Harry smiled weakly before turning back to the court, seeing that Tommy had now actually joined Jason as the two attempted to double-team the Black Ranger. Unfortunately for them, however, Zack was still nearly unbeatable. The few times Jason and Tommy managed to score it was only by tricking Zack out of position. More often than not, he would almost easily snag the ball out of the air when the other two tried to pass it around, which only increased the lead he had over his two friends.

Harry just shook his head in disbelief as the score gap increased.

Then, after a quick series of passes, Tommy tried to drive in to score, only for Zack to block him, almost casually knocking the attempted shot aside and knocking the Green Ranger off balance. While Zack helped Tommy back up, an easy smile on his face, the ball bounced off the court and onto the grass opposite where Harry and the others were sitting.

Before any of the players could even start toward the ball, the air was split with the sound of the high pitched mumbling of Rita's Putty Patrollers as a group of seven appeared in a flash of light. Almost cautiously, one of them bent down and picked up the basketball, tilting his head this way and that as it examined it before holding it up tauntingly and looking toward the Rangers.

"Look," Billy called, slightly panicked. "Putties!"

"Come on," Trini said with a slight scowl, idly grabbing Kimberly's arm as the two girls climbed down from atop the picnic table.

"Oh good," Harry joked, glancing toward Billy as they stood as well. "I was getting bored of basketball anyway."

"Everybody spread out!" Jason said, once more using his overly loud, near-shouting command voice that he tended to slip into during tense situations.

Harry and the other Rangers spread out around the court as each was approached by a putty. Casually shaking his hands and bouncing in place to try and loosen himself up, Harry watched the clay construct approaching him even as he touched the Power within him and brought a hint to the surface. There was no way he was going to try and fight this thing without a little support, but it might be a good idea to see how far he had come in his martial arts training.

The court was soon filled with the sound of grunts and shouts, accompanied by the unique sounds Tommy made when he fought, as Harry's putty charged him. The creature came in almost blindly at first, its hands stretched out in front of it in an attempt to grab onto the mage. Harry almost casually sidestepped it, lashing out with one hand and striking the putty in the back, knocking it off balance and sending it into a tumbling roll that it quickly recovered from.

The putty quickly spun around, this time moving in and sending a spin-kick at Harry's face, prompting him to duck underneath the attack. Before he could make an attempt at a counterattack though, the basketball they had been playing with flew through the air and bounced off his face, knocking his glasses askew and throwing him to the ground. The ball, after ricocheting off his face, hit the putty in the chest, somehow knocking it back to the ground. Luckily enough, this kept the putty from following up on its attack on Harry, though the wizard wasn't quite sure he appreciated the thought.

"I really, really hate basketball…" Harry mumbled, fixing his glasses and climbing back to his feet as the putty did the same before charging him again.

This time, the creature lead with a punch. Acting on instinct, Harry leaned to one side, letting the punch go past him before grabbing onto it with his left hand and jerking it forward. As the putty stumbled, Harry almost casually drove his right fist into its stomach in a quick jab, only to then release the putty and clamp his left hand over his slightly throbbing right.

"What the hell are these things made out of?" He complained. "Screw this, I'm sticking with what I know." Turning to face his opponent once more, Harry stepped in close before delivering a palm strike with the heel of his left hand. Upon contact, Harry released a stunning spell into the putty, the brief flash of red light diminished by the proximity of the casting. The result, the putty dropped almost instantly and Harry had to shake off a bit of wooziness from his wandless magic side effects.

Shortly after it fell, the putty vanished in a flash of light. Looking around quickly after settling into a slightly off balance stance, Harry noticed that the others had vanished as well.

"Harry," Billy said, making his way over to the off balance wizard. "Are you alright?"

Harry shook himself slightly before responding. "Yeah… yeah, I'll be alright. I cast a wandless stunner on mine and I'm just shaking off the effects."

"Did you try and fight it first?" Jason asked, letting himself relax slightly since the obvious threat was now gone. "Try and put some of what you've learned to use?"

Harry rolled his eyes as Billy followed him back to the picnic table, the Blue Ranger keeping a close eye on him in case he started to fall. "Yes, as a matter of fact I did. It just didn't work out too well. What the heck are those guys made out of anyway? I've never noticed any of you having any problem while fighting them, but I punched that one and nearly screwed up my hand."

Jason shared a glance with the other Rangers, all of whom were smiling good-naturedly at Harry's plight. "It's something you get used to after practicing martial arts for a while."

Harry just groaned yet again. "Well in the meantime I think I'll just stick to cursing any more that I fight and leave it at that."

Kimberly squinted at him for a moment. "That may be a good idea, Harry. Did you get hit in the face? You're pretty red…"

Harry winced at the memory and reflexively raised his good hand to his slightly sore nose. "No, actually that was the freaking basketball. Stupid bloody game…"

Harry's grumbling set off another round of laughter from the other teens before Zack ran off to recover said ball. Before they could get back to their game though, Tommy announced that he had to leave. Apparently the short battle with the putties had led to him checking the time and noticing he was going to be late for his karate practice if he didn't hurry it up.

As the Green Ranger left the area and Harry continued to pout, the other Rangers got back to their game. This time, Kimberly joined Zack and Jason as the three idly passed the ball around, taking turns at trying to make various crazy shots while Trini and Billy went over to a recently arrived hotdog vendor to get everyone food.

Harry was slightly concerned at the thought that the vendor apparently hadn't seen the very recent putty attack, but it was entirely possible that he had, but was used to such things after so many months of Rita's attacks.

It wasn't until Harry heard an irritatingly familiar voice that he looked back toward the court to see Bulk and Skull trying to harass the Rangers once more. "Game over wimps," Bulk announced, snatching the basketball out of the air. "This is our space."

Jason, Kimberly, and Zack made their way over to confront the two punks while Harry stood to join them. "Yeah?" Jason shot back. "Well it's our space too, and that is our ball."

"Oh, it's your ball?" Bulk mocked, talking in a baby voice. "And his mommy said we can't play with it…" Skull broke into his gratingly high pitched laughter while Bulk continued glaring at the teens.

"Don't you guys ever get bored of this?" Harry asked, cutting through the annoying laughter and bringing the bullies attention to him.

"Hey, look Skull," Bulk said, tossing the ball over his shoulder and starting toward Harry. "It's the wimp from the Youth Center. Ernie's new help."

Harry sighed, idly rubbing between his eyes before speaking. "Hardly new, Bulk. I've been working there for over a month now."

"Yeah," Bulk said slowly, his face screwing up in confusion for a second before returning to glaring. "Well we owe you for earlier."

"Yeah, for earlier!"

Harry raised an eyebrow and shot a glance at the other Rangers before giving the bullies a flat look. "Oh? And may I ask what for?"

Skull froze for a second before turning to Bulk. "Yeah, Bulk, what for?"

Bulk rounded on the skinny teen and grabbed his shirt. "For messing up our burgers you halfwit!"

Skull looked confused for a moment before he suddenly perked up and turned toward Harry again. "Yeah, for our burgers!"

Harry held his blank look. "As I recall, Skull, you were the one to knock Bulk into your food. That's hardly my fault."

Skull once more turned to bulk, nodding with a goofy smile on his face. "You know, he's got a point there Bulky."

Bulk just growled, using his grip on Skull's shirt to throw him off to one side as he moved to stand right in front of Harry, his face mere inches from the Ranger's. "Well I don't think so. And I'm gonna make you pay for it."

Harry held his ground, staring evenly back into the bully's eyes. He had more than a little experience with dealing with guys like Bulk, both from his cousin Dudley and from his time dealing with Draco Malfoy at Hogwarts. So he stayed where he was, showing as little emotion as possible, not even speaking until he saw the larger bully start to shift uneasily.

"Walk away, Bulk, before you do something that you'll regret." The warning was delivered in a hard, flat tone, one he hadn't really used since the war in his old world. One that gave hint to the toughness he had had to build up just to survive in a world that was led by a terrorist whose primary goal was to kill him.

It turned out to be more than enough to break through the bully's bravado as he quickly backed off.

"Yeah well…" Bulk looked rather panicked as he started rapidly backpedalling away from Harry. "I have better things to do anyway. You got off lucky this ti-!" Bulk's speech was cut off when he tripped over the sprawled form of Skull, still laying where he had fallen when Bulk threw him away. After tripping, Bulk stumbled and ultimately fell, crashing into the hotdog cart Billy and Trini were at, knocking over several containers of condiments and other toppings and spilling their contents all over him.

Harry just shook his head as the other Rangers smothered their laughter at Bulk's predicament, even as the hot dog vendor rounded on him and started demanding that he pay for the toppings he had spilled. Billy and Trini rejoined them, handing out the hot dogs they had procured before Bulk's accident and were quickly caught up on what had happened.

"Yeah," Zack explained with another huge smile on his face. "Harry went all hardcore on him. It was morphinominal!"

The wizard blushed slightly. "I have some experience with bullies like him. They're all bluster. I'm still more concerned with how one or both of them always end up covered in food! It boggles the mind!"

Zack just started laughing again. "Like I said Harry, some mysteries are better left unsolved."

Rolling his eyes at the answer, Harry and the other Rangers moved back to the table once more to eat their hot dogs while Bulk and Skull were forced to push the vendor's cart away while he ranted about them working off the wasted ingredients.

-MR-

Zack and Jason were the first to finish eating and they quickly moved back onto the court to resume their game. By this point, Harry was more than ready to call it a day and head back to the Command Center to relax for a bit. But after Zack blocked yet another shot from Jason, knocking the ball off the court, things changed.

As soon as the ball stopped moving, it exploded.

"Holy shit!" Zack, who had been going to retrieve the ball and was therefore the closest, jerked back in fright, backpedaling quickly to meet up with Harry and the others as they all gathered together.

"Look over there!" Kimberly pointed to a nearby tree line where Squatt and Baboo were standing with a spike covered turtle monster with what looked like a… stop light coming out of the top of its shell…

Alright then.

"It's Morphin' Time!" Jason called out after glancing around to make sure they were otherwise alone. Shrugging, Harry pulled out his wand and took his morphing stance alongside the others.

"MASTODON!" "PTERODACTYL!" "TRICERATOPS!" "SABER-TOOTH TIGER!" "TYRANNOSAURUS!" "MAGI RANGER, POWER UP!"

Harry once more felt a rush of energy wash over him as his Ranger suit formed. When the light faded from them all, the Rangers were standing once more in their suits and, much to Harry's irritation, in a group battle pose.

"Hurry," Baboo called, pointing to the Rangers. "The Go Beam!"

Nodding its head, the turtle monster faced the posing Rangers as the green light on his traffic light started glowing before a lance of energy shot out, hitting Trini and suffusing her with a green aura. Almost immediately, Trini started running in place. "Oh no!" she shouted, panicked. "What's going on? I can't stop moving!"

Relaxing out of his pose, Harry summoned the Magi Staff even as the other Rangers charged toward the three monsters. With a wave of his weapon, Harry levitated the Yellow Ranger just as she started to turn to run off and then cast a diagnostic charm. "Hmm…" Harry said after a moment. "There's some kind of spell on you…"

"Well yeah." Trini snapped, sounding somewhat irritated even through her panic. "I think that's kind of obvious."

Harry smiled under his helmet. "Sorry, just talking things out. The thing is that it doesn't feel like any of Rita's other monsters that I've seen…"

"That's because this one isn't like any other you've seen, Harry." Zordon's voice came from his communicator.

Lifting it to the mouthpiece on his helmet, Harry responded. "Do you have any input, Zordon? Do you know why this spell seems so different to me?"

"Indeed I do, Harry," Zordon responded quickly, almost sounding smug if Harry were to judge. "In this case, the reason that the energy doesn't feel familiar to you is because there is no magic of the Elder Wand in this new monster. I suspect that Rita had nothing to do with the creation of this creature. Based on Squatt and Baboo's presence without Goldar or Scorpina, I believe that they created this monster themselves."

"And that means what exactly?" Trini asked, slightly calmer now, but still more than ready to get rid of whatever spell the turtle had used on her.

"It means that Harry can break the spell if he uses his own Power properly."

Harry glanced up at Trini, surprise on his hidden face before glancing back down toward the communicator incredulously. "Ok… but I don't really recall being taught any kind of cancellation spell using Grid Power, Zordon. How am I supposed to be able to fix this?"

"Your morph gives you several benefits, Harry." Zordon seemed to be going into a lecture mode, though Harry felt it might not be the best time as he heard the telltale sounds of explosions as the other Rangers battled with the turtle monster nearby. "One of the greatest of such is how it combines the two brands of magics you wield into a much stronger whole. If you focus properly, you can use your unique magic as a framework and power your spells with Grid energies. By casting this way, you should be able to use your own cancellations spell to break the enchantment on Trini, and indeed break any spell that isn't reinforced by the magic of a more powerful magic user with relatively little difficulty."

Harry blinked, glanced up at Trini, and then blinked again. "Alright…" he said slowly. "I suppose I can give it a shot if you think it'll work."

"Trust in your instincts, Harry." Zordon responded calmly. "Trust in your instincts and trust in the Morphing Grid. The Power will guide you."

"Right," Harry nodded as he lowered his arm and firmed up his grip on the Magi Staff. "Hold still as best you can, Trini. This should only take a second… hopefully…"

Trini just stared at him, her arms and legs still pumping uncontrollably under the effects of the monster's beam. "That's not too reassuring, Harry…"

Harry just shrugged before calling up his Power, letting the purple aura engulf him as he relaxed as best he could. It was a technique that he and Zordon had worked on rather extensively during his training as it allowed a student to use the more complex Grid Powers the easiest. Needless to say, it wasn't the best or simplest thing to do during a pitched battle, but it worked in a pinch.

Almost immediately, Harry felt the Power flowing through him and, working as quickly as he could, grabbed ahold of it before impressing his need onto it. This was the most basic technique for casting with Grid Power. As a result, it was also the least efficient, but he had to start somewhere.

Feeling the Power accept his command after a few seconds, Harry was more than a bit surprised to feel his own magic rise up as well and mix with the Grip Power. A few more seconds later and Harry felt himself start moving, spinning his staff around his body, passing it from one hand to another while it began glowing as he channeled Power into it. Finally, he thrust the staff toward Trini. " _Finite_ _Incantatem!_ "

Trini was briefly surrounded by a purple glow before she both stopped running in midair, and stopped floating in midair as Harry's counterspell cancelled both the monster's spell, and Harry's levitation charm. "Whoops!" Harry said with a slight laugh. "Sorry about that Trini." Moving quickly, Harry switched his staff to his left hand before offering his right to help her back up.

Accepting his help, Trini climbed back to her feel. "You can make it up to me later, for now we have to help the others!"

Turning toward the battle, Harry noticed that Trini was right. As ridiculous as the turtle looked with that stop light coming out of him, it was apparently not a monster to take lightly. It had somehow acquired a baseball bat and was using it to great effect in warding off the Rangers, occasionally sending one of them flying in a shower of sparks as it scored a hit. Nearby, Squatt and Baboo were cheering the monster on while Squatt… recorded the entire battle on video camera…

Alright then.

Before Harry and Trini could move in to help, the turtle seemed to grow tired of beating on their friends with his bat as it grabbed Zack and threw him into the other three, making them all fall into a pile. "Alright then!" it shouted as it drew its right arm back into its shell, taking the bat with it before the arm came back out without it. "Now it's time for Shellshock to show you his Stop Ray!"

After flailing its arms around briefly, Shellshock's red light started glowing before blasting the four downed Rangers with a wide area beam of red light. Jason, having managed to struggle out of the tangle of limbs that he and the others had become, barely managed to dodge out of the way. When the light faded, it revealed Zack, Kimberly, and Billy frozen on the ground where they had been lying.

"No!" Jason cried dramatically, summoning his Power Sword and charging the turtle, Trini pulling her daggers and following behind. "What did you do to my friends you freak?!"

Shellshock just laughed as it turned on the spot, deflecting Jason's first sword strike off its shell before completing the spin and bringing his oversized claw hands down across Jason's torso. "The same thing I'm going to do to you Red Ranger! You and the other Rangers are finished!"

Then Trini leapt into the air and brought her daggers down across Shellshock's head, knocking the monster down and sending sparks flying. "What!" it roared in confusion. "How did you break free of my Go Beam? You should have been miles away from here by now!"

"You aren't the only one around here with magic, mate!" Harry shouted from next to the frozen rangers, spinning his glowing staff as he did so. Finally, with yet another thrust from his focus, Harry released his spell once more. " _Finite_ _Incantatem!_ "

Just as with Trini, the three Rangers were covered briefly in a purple glow before the spell holding them in place broke and they started moving again. "Oh man…" Zack groaned as he struggled to his feet. "What happened?"

"No time now," Harry said, helping Kimberly up as Billy too regained his feet. "Kill the turtle and I'll explain later."

"Right," Zack nodded, striking a pose before summoning his Power Axe. "Let's do this, Rangers!"

Without another word, Zack and the others charged in to assist Jason and Trini against Shellshock. With their weapons now in hand and with the monster not having its bat, the Rangers were having a much easier time keeping it on its back foot. Harry though, still wasn't quite confident enough in his close combat skills to join them. Instead, he decided to stay back and look for an opportunity to assist magically.

Then he caught sight of Squatt and Baboo and a smirk crossed his face.

Hopping in place, Harry brought his feet together before leaping into the air toward the two dimwitted servants of Rita. After flipping once, he landed behind them, making enough noise that they both spun to face him and almost immediately recoiled. "Hello, boys," Harry drawled, brandishing his weapon as he turned to face them. "It's been a bit, hasn't it?"

"Gah!" Baboo shouted. "It's the Mageling!"

"Oh yeah," Squatt shouted back, still holding the camera for some reason. "Goldar said he got his own Ranger Powers! I forgot about that!"

"Oh no, what are we gonna do!?" Baboo was practically dancing in place now in his panic.

Harry just felt a bit sorry for them.

Before he could start in on them, he heard Jason calling for the Power Blaster.

"Alright guys, let's bring 'em together!"

"POWER AXE!" "POWER BOW!" "POWER DAGGERS!" "POWER LANCE!" "POWER SWORD!"

As the four of the five Rangers threw their weapons into the air, they all combined into one weapon. The bow and the axe connected to form something like a crossbow while the daggers and two halves of Billy's lance attached to the underside of the bow and parallel to the axe/cannon's barrel with the bladed ends pointing backward. Finally, Jason leapt up and placed his sword down along the top before bringing the entire thing down to the rest of them as they stood in formation. "POWER BLASTER!" They chanted together. "FIRE!"

The main gun at the butt end of the axe along with the round bottom ends of each of the daggers and lance pieces lit up with bright light before beams of energy shot out of each of them. The beams then began to spin around each other, eventually forming into one solid beam of energy that flew toward the panicking turtle monster. However, before the beam could hit and inevitably destroy said monster, a bright flash of lightning struck down just in front of it, destabilizing the beam and saving Shellshock from the Rangers' finisher.

"Do you really think I'd make it that easy?" Harry whipped his head to the side to see Rita standing a short distance away. Cursing to himself, Harry moved around the stunned forms of Squatt and Baboo who were staring at Rita in fear so he could regroup with the other Rangers.

Rita followed his movement, but didn't speak until he had joined his comrades. "So, Mageling, Zordon is teaching you to use real power and you decided to use it to join with his band of goody goodies… How disappointing…"

"I do believe that I've turned down your offer to join you in the past, Rita. I don't see how me joining with the Rangers more formally is any more of a surprise or a disappointment than my initial refusal."

Rita just scowled before glancing over at the still frozen forms of Squatt and Baboo. "Get over here you nitwits!"

Squatt and Baboo jumped as if stung before scurrying over to Rita's side, Squatt leaving the camera behind, and immediately prostrating themselves before her, babbling as they did so.

"We're so sorry your evilness! We just wanted to surprise you!"

"Yeah, and Shellshock was doing really well until the Mageling broke his spell over the other Rangers! He almost won!"

Rita let a wicked smile stretch across her face as her eyes trailed over the turtle monster that had moved to stand near her as well. "Yes, perhaps you're right…"

"We are?" Squatt asked, perking up slightly before glancing at Baboo who had done the same.

"Yes, of course we are!" Baboo immediately answered, nodding frantically. "We did good this time!"

"Yes, perhaps you did do well this time… Though it seems as though… Shellshock will need a bit of help against the Rangers even now."

"You can't beat us Rita! Why don't you just give it up!?" Jason demanded. Harry had to fight down the urge to facepalm.

Rita, however, seemed to be ignoring the Red Ranger. "Yes, it is far too late for me to properly empower him, but that doesn't mean I can't make him… GROW!"

With a sharp jerk, Rita flipped her staff into a two handed grip before blasting the ground around Shellshock with a bolt of red lightning. As Rita, Squatt and Baboo vanished in a flash of light, the earth split open and a blast of smoke shot out, engulfing the turtle monster and increasing its size exponentially.

"Alright, guys," Jason called, turning to face the other Rangers. "Let's do this thing!" Turning around once more, Jason threw his right arm into the air, a pose matched by the others while Harry watched. "We need Dinozord Power, now!"

As the Zords arrived with a great deal of earth shaking and mechanical roaring, Harry felt just a bit left out. After watching the now giant Shellshock move to engage the Megazord a bit closer to the city, Harry twisted in place, apparating himself to the top of a skyscraper, hoping that he would be able to assist if needed.

The fight seemed to be rather even, all things told. The two titans were about the same size, though Shellshock's shell gave it a bit more bulk and the stoplight technically made it taller. Beyond that, though, they seemed to be about equal in speed and power.

As the fight moved fully into the city proper, mostly through stumbling and knockback from powerful blows, Harry once more apparated from building to building, looking for an opportunity to strike and keeping his Power at the ready. Then, with a powerful right hook, the Megazord sent Shellshock sprawling, the monster screaming out in pain as it rolled away.

Over his communicator, Harry heard Jason shouting encouragement. "That's it, guys, we've got him on the run. Now let's finish him! We need the Power Sword!"

Lightning flashed in the sky as the massive, compared to Harry, sword came flying down from wherever it was kept when not in use, easily caught by the Megazord when it got close enough. Shellshock regained its feet and charged toward the massive machine, retracting its head in time to avoid a swipe from the Power Sword, only for a large cannon barrel to come out in its place.

"HOW ABOUT A TASTE OF THIS, POWER RANGERS!" The monster mocked before a blast of energy fired out of the cannon at point blank range, knocking the Megazord backwards and to the ground.

"AND NOW…" Shellshock mocked once more, reorienting the cannon on the downed Megazord despite the fact that its eyes were blocked by that same cannon. "YOU'RE THROUGH!"

"Ah crap…" Harry mumbled, drawing his power up fully and sending a fireball flying toward the turtle. Just before the cannon fired again, Harry's attack smashed into Shellshock, making it rear back in surprise and causing its blast to fly into the air instead of at the downed machine.

"Good job, Harry!" Jason said over his communicator. "We're having some trouble getting the Megazord back up. Just do what you can to hold him off!"

"Right…" Harry mumbled, pulling up more Power and channeling it into his staff as he spun it. "Easier said than done I think…"

Shellshock was back on his feet again, the cannon now replaced once more by his head as he glared toward Harry on top of his building. "YOU JUST COULDN'T LEAVE WELL ENOUGH ALONE, COULD YOU RANGER?" the turtle asked, irritation in its voice as it stomped closer to Harry's position. "NOW I'M GONNA HAVE TO SQUASH YOU FLAT!"

Growling to himself, Harry released the built up Power in his staff, summoning a bolt of lightning that arced from his focus and raked across the giant turtle's face. Shellshock cried out in pain as sparks flew from the point of impact before a small explosion lit up the area, shrouding the monster temporarily in smoke. When the smoke cleared, however, it was revealed that the monster was mostly fine, with only a few scorch marks for its trouble.

"HA!" the turtle laughed. "I GUESS I'M JUST TOO MUCH FOR YOU, 'YA LITTLE PIPSQUEAK!" With further laughter, Shellshock withdrew its right arm into its shell and produced its baseball bat once more. As the monster drew it back to smash into him, Harry froze. There was literally nothing he could do to take this thing down. Even with all his new Power and training, he still didn't have anything in his arsenal truly effective against something this size.

Before Shellshock could end him, however, a very welcome six note song echoed through the air, followed immediately by the whistling sound that accompanied a rain of missiles from the Dragonzord.

Shellshock was knocked off balance by the first salvo of missiles, and the second knocked it to the ground, forcing the giant turtle, shouting out its defiant rage as it climbed back to its feet to face off against the Dragonzord that now stood protectively near the still downed Megazord.

Harry let out a breath of relief before activating his communicator. "Cutting it a bit close there, eh Tommy?"

Tommy's voice came with a bit of a chuckle. "Sorry about that Harry, you alright?"

Harry nodded before remembering Tommy probably couldn't see him. "Yeah, the others are down for the moment and I managed to freeze up at about the worst possible time, but I'm still here."

"We're not down any more!" Jason's triumphant voice cut across the communication channel as the Megazord climbed slowly back to its feet, the Power Sword being used as a crutch until it stood upright again. The Dragonzord turned briefly toward the Megazord before roaring and turning back toward Shellshock, the drill on its tail spinning as it prepared to charge.

Shellshock brandished its bat for a second before a smirk grew on its face. "I THINK YOU GUYS NEED TO TAKE A BREAK!" Before any of the Rangers could react, the red light on Shellshock's stoplight flashed brightly and the red Stop Ray shot out, engulfing both the Megazord and Dragonzord, freezing them in place.

"Oh, bloody hell…" Harry gasped. "That's not good."

Almost immediately, Jason started shouting across the communications channel again. "Zordon! We can't move!"

"I know Jason, Shellshock's Stop Ray has frozen both the Megazord and Dragonzord cold."

"Harry!" Trini spoke next, though Harry could hear sounds of panic from the others in the background. "Can you break through the spell on the Zords like you did for us earlier?"

Thinking quickly, Harry shook his head. "I don't think so, Trini. The last time I cast a spell on something that big it was a pretty heavy drain on my reserves, and the counter spell is much more complex than the body bind I used on Goldar and Scorpina. Not to mention I don't know how long it would take to gather enough Power to cast it properly."

Shellshock was dancing in celebration, supremely confident in his victory. It was probably only this that gave them any sort of chance now.

"There has to be something we can do!" Kimberly said, panicking along with her teammates. "We can't even get out of here. The access hatches are all frozen shut just like the rest of the Megazord!"

"Even now the internal magics of the Power within each Zord are combatting the foreign energies of Shellshock's spell. It should only be a matter of minutes before the effect ends on its own. If we had the time, we could use the Diandra flower to speed up the process." Zordon mused, talking things out to himself. "It is a rare flower with powerful curative properties that could help break Shellshock's spell…"

"But something tells me that it's a bit outside of our reach at the moment, Zordon." Harry snapped. "Do you have any quicker solutions we could try?" Shellshock seemed to be calming down, and he was now taunting the Rangers in their paralyzed Megazord.

"There is one other option at the moment Harry." Zordon said after another moment. "The other Rangers are trapped in the Megazord and Tommy is just as helpless as you with the Dragonzord frozen as well, but you could always try summoning your Zord."

Harry paused for a moment, shocked at the concept Zordon had just introduced. "Wait a second… I have a Zord too?"

"Of course you do, Harry." Zordon sounded slightly amused despite the tense situation. "All Power Rangers have Zords, you just have to summon yours and use it to hold off Shellshock until the Megazord and Dragonzord break through Shellshock's spell on their own. It is only a matter of buying some more time."

"Alright, Zordon," Harry was panicking himself now, seeing Shellshock drawing its head back to produce its cannon. "Just tell me how to do it and I'll give it a shot."

"It will be just like when you first morphed, Harry." Zordon spoke calmly. "Let the Power guide you and you will know what to do."

Right, the first rule to actively using the Power: let the Power guide you. With a deep breath, Harry forced himself to relax as best he could and once more drew on the Power within him. Just as with his counterspells, he impressed a simple desire on the Power: I need to call my Zord…

Once again, Harry began moving as the warmth of the Power began flowing through him more and more rapidly. Flipping his staff once before passing it to his left hand, Harry's deep purple aura exploded into life around him. Extending his right hand over his head with his fingers spread wide, he began to speak.

"Silence in the Night! Spirit of an old friend! Power of the Resurrection Stone! I call you forth: Silver Owl Zord! HEDWIG!"

Wait… what…?

-MR-

Thanks for reading and don't forget to review.

Tenstar12


	22. Chapter 22

Magi Ranger

By: Tenstar12

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or Power Rangers.

 **Chapter 22, In which, Harry Reunites with a Familiar Friend**

" _Silence in the Night! Spirit of an old friend! Power of the Resurrection Stone! I call you forth: Silver Owl Zord! HEDWIG!"_

 _Wait… what…?_

For Harry, everything froze as the words he had just spoken, guided as he was by the Morphing Grid's Power, finally registered in his brain. Could it be possible? Or was this just some odd tribute by the Grid to what Harry had lost before coming here?

Time started once more when he took note of the giant Shellshock with its cannon once more protruding from its shell and pointed at the downed Zords. "ITS OVER FOR YOU, RANGERS!" the monster taunted as a slight glow began to emanate from the end of the cannon. "I'M GIVING THIS ONE MY FULL POWER! THERE'S NO WAY YOU CAN SURVIVE!"

"Harry!" Trini's voice came from his communicator. "Do something! Please!"

Harry was still frozen in place, held by the ever-growing river of Power flowing through him with the Magi Staff in his left hand and his right extended into the air over his head.

Finally, after a mere handful of seconds that felt like hours for all of the Rangers, Harry felt the Power that had been growing within him finally release itself in a burst. Harry at once found himself both able to move freely and so weak that he immediately used this freedom of movement to collapse to one knee, tightly gripping his staff as he went down.

Before Harry, or any of the other Rangers, could react further, the air was split with a crack of thunder as a bright, multi-colored vortex appeared high above Angel Grove. From within this vortex, which had somehow caught the attention of Shellshock (despite the fact that its head was currently replaced by a massive gun) and thus delayed the defeat of the Rangers by a few more seconds, came a screeching sound that was both hauntingly familiar to Harry and strangely mechanical at the same time.

Before the drained wizard could further contemplate the mysteries of the situation, a bright flash of silver-white light emanated from the vortex and a large shape came flying out of it at high speeds. As the vortex closed without a sound, the shape resolved itself into that of a bird of some kind, though before Harry could identify much more about it than that and the fact that it was largely a metallic silver in color, it released another of those hauntingly familiar screeches and plowed into Shellshock, talons first.

The sheer entry speed of what had to be Harry's Zord was enough that even though it was rather smaller than the turtle monster, it was still able to knock it backwards just before it could fire its cannon, the resulting streak of red energy lancing upward through the clouds overhead and harmlessly into space.

"WHAT WAS THAT!?" Shellshock roared as it struggled to roll off of its shell, succeeding after a few moments and climbing back to its feet, its turtle head replacing the cannon as it stood, bat still clenched tightly in its clawed hand. The Zord had completed a vertical loop by this time and now hovered several blocks away (comparably twenty or so feet with the giant sizes involved) in front of the still frozen forms of the Megazord and Dragonzord, its wings flapping much too slowly to realistically provide lift as it glared at the monster with a yellow pane of glass it had in place of the eye Harry could see.

Now that it wasn't moving so fast as to only appear as a blur, Harry was able to study the machine from his kneeling position. It was, as he had previously noted, largely a metallic silver in color, though there were a few spots on its chest that were darker grey or black. Its body seemed mostly sharp angles and smooth planes, occasionally interrupted by a feather design, particularly near a joint or the neck, unlike the other Rangers' Zords with their general lack of detail.

Its legs hung about half its torso length below it and just in front of its tail feathers, talons idly clenching and unclenching with each slow flap of its wings. From each side, just outside where the legs protruded from the body, were the only, as far as Harry could see at the moment, non-avian like feature on it. What looked like two sets of two long tube like structures stretched down just over half the length of the legs, angled out slightly and serving no easily discernable purpose to the wizard.

The wings themselves, aside from having an actual feather pattern, appeared to have some kind of fan or turbine about midway down their length, the top of each circular fan resting just below where the bones would have been in an actual bird. The center of the currently spinning fans appeared almost crystalline and glowed internally with a deep purple light.

That same purple light also shone from a smooth dome atop its head, though it seemed focused on a tiny point at the very top as opposed to coming from within. The dome then merged almost seamlessly with the sides of the Zord's head as it sloped down into the neck, its beak protruded from the center of its face, occasionally opening and closing sharply and making a clacking noise each time that echoed over the area.

Overall, the machine was just under half the size of the Megazord, perhaps four or five stories tall if Harry had to guess, though since it had a wingspan nearly twice that height it appeared much bigger. As Harry, Tommy, Shellshock, and the Rangers still trapped in the Megazord watched, the Owl Zord's head spun clockwise a full 360, revealing that the yellow glass plate for its right eye took up that entire side of its face.

When the left eye passed over Harry's location atop one of Angel Grove's skyscrapers, the turning head paused for a fraction of a second and Harry felt a purely internal magical _snap_ as something connected to his mind.

 _-Harry/Wizard!-_ the familiar voice of Harry's oldest companion rang through his mind with a tone of happiness and contentment. - _I told you that I would always be with you if you knew where to look._ -

Harry nearly completed his fall, his body growing so weak from shock that he barely caught himself before face-planting into the rooftop. How could it be possible that this machine could speak with the same voice of his dead familiar? Was this some kind of trick? A mockery of Hedwig fashioned by the Grid from his memories from his old world?

Was it possible that this machine really was Hedwig?

- _Talking later, Harry/Wizard._ \- the voice spoke once more. - _Now I must stop Not-Turtle from hurting your friends._ -

By this time, Shellshock had recovered from his surprise. "SO…" it drawled. "ANOTHER LITTLE MACHINE FOR ME TO DESTROY! AND THIS ONE FLIES! THAT MAY MAKE THINGS A BIT MORE… SPORTING!" Shellshock pulled its left arm into its shell and brought it back out moments later holding a… baseball of all things. Idly tossing it into the air, the monster swung its bat and knocked the ball toward Hedwig(?) with a loud crack.

As the ball flew toward the Zord, it started glowing brightly before one ball became two, then two became four. Mere moments later there were dozens of giant baseballs flying toward the still hovering Zord that seemed to have no concern at all.

As it turned out, the lack of concern was rather appropriate as the balls merely clunked off of its metal body doing little to no damage in the end. Hedwig spun her head around again, stopping with her eye angled slightly toward him. - _Should I respond, Harry/Wizard?-_

"Huh?" Harry said aloud, still rather stunned at his apparent situation.

- _Should I attack Not-Turtle, or only stop it from hurting your friends?_ -

"Uh… I guess so…" Harry answered, not sure himself if his response was a question or a statement.

Hedwig clacked her beak a few times, a move Harry recognized from his old world when his Familiar was slightly annoyed with her human. Mere moments later, she reoriented fully on Shellshock as the turbines in her wings began to hum as they started spinning faster. - _Very well then._ -

"OH," Shellshock spoke again, apparently unconcerned with the lack of damage caused by his previous attack. "YOU WANT TO PLAY, LITTLE BIRDY?" taking a step closer to Hedwig, it brandished the baseball bat once more in its right hand while retracting its left only to push it back out with a large pirates hook on it moments later. "THEN LET'S PLAY!"

By this point, the turbines were spinning so fast that it was impossible to make out the individual blades. The wind started picking up and Hedwig's wings were flapping slightly faster now, kicking up even more wind and dust on each downthrust. Finally, just as Shellshock started to charge forward, Hedwig let out another of her vicious hunting screeches and the tubes by her legs lit up abruptly, revealing their purpose as thruster of some kind and launching Hedwig up into the air at speeds rivaling those of her initial arrival.

After a deceptively lazy loop, Hedwig came back down toward Shellshock in a stoop, talons forward, wings back, and a fierce light coming from within her metallic yellow eye. The two titanic forms slammed together with a loud crash, knocking the turtle once more onto its back. The resulting shockwave broke several windows on nearby buildings and nearly knocked Harry flat once again as dust rose around the struggling figures.

As effective as the tactic had been at knocking the monster down, as a bird, Hedwig was not exactly built for prolonged close-combat with a larger opponent. This was proven as Shellshock was able to wrench itself free from Hedwig's talons and launch the Owl Zord off of itself with a powerful kick.

Hedwig managed to right herself in the air with a little trouble, but it took long enough for the monster to roll off its back once more and take a kneeling position that she was fully in control before it attacked again. "LET'S SEE HOW YOU LIKE THIS ONE!" Shellshock shouted as the red light on its stoplight lit up once again.

"Hedwig!" Harry shouted both mentally and aloud as he struggled to his feet, leaning heavily on his staff. "Don't let that beam hit you. It'll freeze you just like it did to the others!"

- _Of course, Harry/Wizard._ \- Hedwig replied calmly even as Shellshock's attack lanced toward her. With an almost negligent beat of her wings, Hedwig easily dodged the attack, as well as the next several that were sent her way.

- _Let us see how Not-Turtle does without this strange light stick._ \- Hedwig commented just before her rockets lit up again, sending her up and out of the way of another beam before she folded her wings back and dove down toward the monster. This time, when Hedwig hit Shellshock, she wrapped her talons around the light pole where it was sticking out of its shell. As her momentum carried her forward, and without the bulk of the turtle monster to negate her speed, the pole broke off with a wrenching snap in her iron grip.

Shellshock screamed out in either pain or rage and began flailing its arms around, trying to hit Hedwig who was still bleeding off her excess speed with the monster's traffic light clenched tightly in her talons. "GIMME BACK MY LIGHT!" the monster roared, throwing its bat at Hedwig, an attack she dodged with an almost negligent shift of her wings and what would probably have been a scathing glance if her eyes hadn't been mechanical.

Harry felt Hedwig's mental shrug and a sense of mischief before hearing her speak. - _Okay, Not-Turtle wants its light stick back, then I will give it back_.- In an instant, Hedwig folded her wings again, dropping out of the sky like a stone before flaring them just in front of Shellshock. The momentum of her drop was largely negated for her, but the traffic light in her claws kept it all as she released it to crash into the monster, the glass in the lights shattering on impact accompanied by several metallic clangs.

It was a few moments later, as Shellshock rose to its feet again still complaining, that Harry realized that the metallic clangs weren't coming from Shellshock.

Turning back toward the now clearly unfrozen Zords, Harry watched as the Megazord finished disassembling into the individual component Zords before the Dragonzord began transforming. The Zord's arms snaked back into its torso as the center of its body lifted away and the sides folded together over the gap to form a sort of armored chest plate. At the same time, the Triceratops and Saber-tooth Tiger Zords changed into the same form they did for the Megazord, only to attatch to the legs of the Dragonzord while the Mastodon did the same, becoming the back and arms of this new mechanical combination. Finally, the Dragonzord's tail detached, the bulk of it retracting into itself to form a pole and then connecting with the detached Dragonzord chest piece to form a drill-tipped spear that settled into the right hand of the machine while the Dragonzord's mouth opened fully, revealing a blank, yet somehow stern face on the lower jaw.

From Harry's communicator, he heard Jason and the other Rangers chanting together. "Dragonzord: Battle Mode! Power up!"

Before Shellshock could react, the drill on the tip of the Zord's spear began spinning furiously, lightning crackling around it as the Dragonzord in Battle Mode charged forward, driving the weapon through the turtle and leaving a sparking hole. While Harry watched and Hedwig hovered once more overhead, the mighty machine turned away from Shellshock as it fell backward, exploding mere moments after it hit the ground.

"Well…" Harry commented idly as the machine seemed to pose for a moment before it started disassembling again. "That almost seemed anticlimactic…"

Harry's thoughts were interrupted as he heard the soft whine of Hedwig's wing-turbines when not prepped for battle, a sound he had missed before because of the distance, as the Zord floated closer. The wizard found himself struggling to stand as the wind buffeted him fiercely. Only moments later, the wind began lessening. A quick glance up revealed that the once building sized owl robot was now shrinking, only being the size of a semi-truck now. And now just a compact car. And now the size of a regular snowy owl.

As the robot flew closer, now flapping its wings as a regular owl might, Harry lifted his left arm on instinct, catching Hedwig as she landed on his forearm and bringing her down so he could meet her eye to eye. There was no real change in her appearance besides size, though he could now see an all too familiar shiny black stone perched at the peak of the dome atop her head. In retrospect, he did call on the "Power of the Resurrection Stone" when he summoned her, so it only made sense that the stone itself would be around somewhere.

- _Are you uninjured, Harry/Wizard?_ \- Hedwig's soft voice echoed through his mind bringing feelings of warmth and familiarity he had once enjoyed during his time at Hogwarts.

"How is this possible?" Harry murmured, dismissing the Magi Staff as he brought his right hand up to idly stroke the metal plate of Hedwig's chest. "You don't look like you… but you sound and… and _feel_ like you… I just don't… how is this possible? You were dead… And now…"

Hedwig clacked her beak once before letting out a soft bark of impatience. – _Questions later, Harry/Wizard. Answer me now. Are you uninjured?_ -

Harry chuckled ruefully. She even acted like Hedwig had back in his world, pushy and as stubborn as he was. "Yes, yes I'm alright. Just a bit worn out."

"Harry!"

Harry turned around, slowly so as to avoid disturbing the now comparatively tiny Zord he was carrying and in accordance with his own weakness, and saw the other six Rangers approaching him.

"Are you alright?" Tommy asked first, his helmeted gaze switching between Harry's own helmet and the robot perching on his arm. "Is that your Zord?"

Harry smiled under his helmet and nodded slightly. "Yes… Everyone, this is, apparently, Hedwig."

"Hedwig?" Kimberly asked, stepping closer and staring intently at the owl-bot. "Isn't that the name of your Familiar that you said was… oh…"

Harry chuckled and nodded weakly again. "Yeah… oh…"

Further conversation was cut off by Zordon's voice coming from each of their communicators. "Rangers, congratulations on a job well done. If you will all teleport to the Command Center, I believe that I will be able to explain what has happened."

"Alright, Zordon," Jason responded immediately. "We're on our way." Lowering his left arm from his mouth plate, Jason glanced around at the others. "Alright Rangers, let's teleport back."

"Right!" the others chorused, even Tommy, before they brought both hands to their belt buckle morphers as one and vanished in their individually colored columns of light.

Hedwig's head spun a full circle again. - _Bossy-Red needs to calm down. Is almost as bad as Red Weasel friend from Hoggy Home.-_

Harry gave a soft snort of laughter before bringing his free hand down to his belt and triggering his own teleportation. As he and Hedwig vanished in a column of purple light he decided that for the moment, he didn't really care if this was the real Hedwig or not, he was going to try and enjoy this little bit of happy nostalgia while he could.

-MR-

When he rematerialized in the Command Center, Harry caught sight of the other Rangers already demorphed and looking intently at Zordon.

"Welcome back, Rangers." Zordon nodded, happiness and pride dancing in his eyes. "And another congratulations on your victory. Shellshock was a challenging adversary, despite his origins, but you all dealt with the threat admirably for your first real challenge since the addition of our newest Rangers."

"Thanks, Zordon." Jason stepped forward as he spoke for the group. "But, in all honesty, we probably would have been toast if it wasn't for Harry's new Zord." Jason glanced back over his shoulder and nodded, just barely, in Harry's direction before turning back to his mentor. "You said you might be able to explain things about it to us, right?"

Zordon nodded before speaking. "Indeed, Jason. I am sure you are all quite confused as to why Harry's Owl Zord has shrunk down to its current size and why Harry is referring to it by the name of his old Familiar. In truth, Rangers, Harry's old Hedwig and this current one are one and the same through the Power of the Resurrection Stone and the actions of the Morphing Grid."

The Morphin' Rangers seemed shocked and/or confused by the concept, but Harry's mind was racing over the implications. "You mean to tell me that the Grid used the Stone to somehow return Hedwig to life? That's beyond the power of the Stone's magic though. It can only restore an illusion of life and this is much more than that." He gestured with his free hand to Hedwig who had turned on his arm and now stood cradled into his chest.

Nodding once more, Zordon answered Harry's question/demand with sympathy in his voice. "From what the Grid communicated to me when I asked, it felt that your Power, based as it is on your own brand of magic, should be influenced as much as possible by your old world. As such, when it came time for it to decide the use for the Resurrection Stone it used the Stone's power, amplified by its own, and called upon the spirit of your old companion to animate the associated Zord."

Harry tilted his head down a bit and spoke toward the mechanical owl. "Then… what happened, Hedwig? Do you know how you got here?"

Hedwig's head turned this way and that with a small whirring noise before coming to a stop facing backwards so she could face Harry. - _I was in the Great Beyond. Hunting to my pleasure. Much prey to be had. I was happy, but not happy. Harry/Wizard was not there. Then, Voice from Nowhere called to me. Told me that it could help me reunite with my Harry/Wizard. I knew that Harry/Wizard cannot stay out of trouble without me, so I went. And I was right! Harry/Wizard was about to be squashed by big Not-Turtle when I got here! Harry/Wizard just cannot stay out of trouble._ -

Harry felt tears building in his eyes at his familiar's words and hugged her to him again. The feeling of her metal skin rubbing against his chest still covered by his Ranger suit was different, but the feelings he got from his oldest and dearest friend and companion were the same.

"Uh… Harry?" Kimberly asked hesitantly. "Are you alright?"

Harry's head snapped up, wide-eyed under his helmet. He had actually forgotten where he was for a moment. Blushing, he spoke. "Sorry, Hedwig was telling me how she got here through our bond."

"Bond?" Tommy asked. "You and Zordon have both mentioned something about her being your familiar, but not really what that meant. Is this bond a part of that or something?"

Harry sighed softly before tilting his head to one side, using Occlumency to call up what memories he could of the research that he (*cough*Hermione*cough*) had done once Hedwig's status as his Familiar had become known. "A familiar is sort of like a magic user's destined companion. It's an animal of some kind that is typically in tune with the witch or wizard's own magical wavelength. There are several levels of Familiarity though. At the most basic, you get a very dedicated pet who will always love and appreciate you and will live as long as you do. This is the most common form of Familiar in my old world. Hermione had a pet cat that was at this level with her.

"Next up, a closer match brings with it the ability for the Familiar to comprehend and react to the emotional state of the bonded magical more than usual. It typically brings with it a magically enhanced intelligence that eventually results in the ability for the Familiar to communicate with their bonded telepathically. This communication becomes easier as the bond gets stronger over time and was how Hermione and I realized that Hedwig was more than just my pet post owl during our Third Year at Hogwarts, which was surprisingly early for such a connection to form seeing as most Familiar Bonds don't reach that point for nearly a decade after the initial bonding.

"Higher than that, Familiars can help their bonded with certain rituals or complex spell casting, but that typically only happens if the Familiar itself is a magical creature, which is frighteningly rare. In one case in history, the Familiar Bond was so great that the Wizard, Merlin himself, was actually nearly twice as magically powerful when he cast spells alongside his familiar, a brown owl named Archimedes."

The Rangers seemed slightly awestruck, either from the overload of information or the reference to a wizard that they better recognized as a cartoon character. Finally, Zack asked the question on their minds. "How strong is your bond with Hedwig?"

Harry gave an unseen smile at his Familiar as he responded. "Hedwig and I seem to have peaked at the second level. This could be because she was a regular post owl back then, though I guess there is the possibility that that could change now that she is effectively a techno-magical construct, eh?"

Billy looked excited as he flicked his gaze between Harry and Hedwig. "So you were communicating entirely by thought? Prodigious!"

Harry chuckled at the Blue Ranger's enthusiasm. "Yes, Billy, Hedwig and I were speaking telepathically. She told me that she was in the afterlife when the 'Voice from Nowhere' told her that it could bring her back to me. Since she was apparently not as happy as she would like there, she agreed and came here to protect me." While the others processed Hedwig's story, Harry found himself leaning back against a computer console, still clutching at Hedwig like a stuffed animal. The Owl herself had no problems with this arrangement, as she kept up a near constant stream of contented, raspy hoots and soft barks while her Wizard held her to him just as they had in their old dimension.

The other Rangers' conversations drifted to various subjects in the next several minutes, but Harry just tuned them out until he felt a hand on his shoulder and glanced up to see Trini. "Harry… why haven't you demorphed yet?"

Her question brought the others' attention back to him again as he froze. Demorph? But if he did, wouldn't Hedwig vanish just as the other Zords did until called to battle? He had just gotten her back, would he really have to give her up again so soon, even if only temporarily?

Upon relaying his concerns, Zordon chuckled. "Harry, I feel that you may be pleasantly surprised if you were to demorph. Hedwig's presence was, above all else, meant to be a further gift to you by the Morphing Grid. A little bit of your home world to help settle you in this one. What kind of gift of that nature would only be accessible during high tension combat situations?"

Harry eyed the trapped wizard for several seconds, doing what he could to try and judge his truthfulness. It was finally Hedwig that calmed him down. - _Harry/Wizard, I am not going anywhere. You still need me to take care of you after all._ -

Harry felt his eyes tearing up again and gave a slow nod before, keeping his eyes on his familiar still perched on his left arm, he grasped at the Power within him and spoke. "Power Down…"

Once the flash of light that came with the demorphing process faded, Harry was thrilled and shocked to see Hedwig still perched on his arm. More than that, she looked like a regular snowy owl again.

"Woah…" Zack breathed, taking a cautious step closer as he, and the other Rangers, watched wide-eyed. "Did she just… is she fully alive again or what?"

Harry lifted a shaking hand and stroked Hedwig once again. He closed his eyes as he felt the familiar downy softness of her feathers beneath his touch, but still recognized an unfamiliar hardness just below the surface. Looking into her bright, yellow eyes, he noticed that the right one appeared slightly glazed over, quite similarly to the solid glass plate that covered the right half of her face in her robot form.

It was Zordon that answered Zack's question though. "Unfortunately, Zack, Hedwig is still a machine in body. Her outward appearance will change whenever she or Harry wills it. In this form, she is more able to stay close to her bonded wizard. A condition she insisted upon from what the Grid mentioned."

Hedwig clacked her beak sharply, her body bobbing twice in an owlish nod. – _I must take care of my Harry/Wizard. I cannot do that if I cannot blend in. Blend in like this. Fight in other form. Protect Harry/Wizard and his friends. Voice from Nowhere agree and say it will tell Big Head._ -

Harry let out a bark of laughter at her comment which prompted another round of confused stares from the others. "Hedwig said that she got the 'Voice from Nowhere' to agree to her terms so that she could better protect me and my friends. She always was overprotective." He gave Hedwig a scratch atop her head, which she leaned into with a happy noise.

Trini squinted in confusion from her spot still at Harry's side where she had been admiring Hedwig's new form. "Voice from Nowhere? You mentioned that before. What is it?"

Harry smiled at her, his happiness and relief overflowing since it appeared he wouldn't be losing his familiar again anytime soon. "Hedwig has a rather interesting habit of giving people names. She rarely ever uses someone's given name unless she is especially close to them. In this case, I believe that the 'Voice from Nowhere' is the consciousness of the Morphing Grid. It makes sense since the Grid didn't really have a physical form when I spoke with it. Hedwig's names are usually either very literal, based on her own experiences or observations, or based on how they treat me specifically."

"How many people's given names does she use?" Jason asked, crossing his arms as he stood watching, curiosity on his face.

Harry smiled. "To date? Two: Hermione and me. She calls me Harry/Wizard and has since we first realized the communication level of our bond. She called Hermione 'Bushy-Haired 'Mione,' I'm pretty sure it's because she spoiled Hedwig whenever she needed a letter sent. My other friends back at Hogwarts only ever got affectionate descriptors, like Ron was 'Red Weasel.' My girl here is rather picky about who she gets close too." Turning his attention back to Hedwig, Harry resumed his petting and scratching, much to the owl's happiness.

Mere moments later, he was drawn out by another question from Jason. "Has she made names for anyone else here yet?"

Harry thought for a moment before fighting down a chuckle. "Well, before we teleported here, she called you 'Bossy-Red.'" When Jason looked about to protest, Harry cut him off. "Hey, she calls them like she sees them. You might get another name later on, but her first impression of you was you ordering the team to teleport back here."

When Jason merely continued staring, a slight pout on his face if Harry was any judge, he continued. "She also called Zordon 'Big Head' just a little bit ago."

His comment brought chuckles from the Rangers, save Jason, and even Zordon himself laughed a bit. Alpha seemed less amused. "'Big Head?' How disrespectful. Ai yai yai…"

Hedwig flared her wings briefly and Harry instinctively lifted the arm she was perched on, giving her a bit of extra oomph that let her take flight more easily. Moving through the air silently as only owls can, she glided over to Alpha and landed somewhat unsteadily on Alpha's smooth saucer-head. Then she abruptly leaned down and pecked him sharply with a metallic ting. - _Metal-Man needs to mind his own business. I will call people what I want to call them and as long as Harry/Wizard does not mind there is nothing Metal-Man can do about it. Tell them, Harry/Wizard._ -

Chuckling again, Harry relayed her message. "She says that she'll call people what she wants to, Alpha. And she has dubbed you 'Metal-man.' In all honesty, I'm the only one who can hear her so you probably don't need to worry about it."

Bobbing her body in another nod, Hedwig took flight once again, with a bit more trouble this time since she didn't get a boost from Alpha, and perched herself on the top of one of the computer consoles and tucked her head under her wing. - _I must rest now, Harry/Wizard. Travel here and fighting Not-Turtle made me tired. Big Head has more information for you. We will talk more later._ -

Harry turned to the others, who had all followed Hedwig's flight and now turned to him. "She's resting. Apparently Shellshock wiped her out a bit. She also said that Zordon has more info for me."

"Indeed, Harry." Zordon spoke, his face more serious now. "As you may have noticed, you felt a great weakness when you first called upon your Zord. This is largely the result of summoning it into being for the first time, but it will still be present should you once again call upon Hedwig's power in the future, just not as severe. Your Zord is much like the Dragonzord in that she draws upon your own personal Power to fuel herself. Always keep this in mind, for if you try to call her into action while you are tired yourself the results could be disastrous. Doubly so since your Power as a wizard is more closely linked to you than Tommy's is to him."

"I will Zordon, thank you." Harry nodded. His happiness high was leveling out, but he still couldn't help but take an occasional glance toward Hedwig and smile all over again. "So, now what?"

The Rangers glanced at each other for a few moments before a large smile split Zack's face. "Well," he said. "We could always head back to the park for some more b-ball."

Harry groaned internally as the other Rangers seemed alright with the idea before a thought struck him. "But didn't Shellshock destroy the basketball before we started fighting him?"

For an instant, Harry felt hope blossom in his chest at the possibility of not being forced to endure Zack's amazing basketball skills any further that day. But then Zack scoffed and Harry felt his hope die. "Maybe so, but I have a few extra at home. I'll just 'port back there first and pick one up and meet you guys at the court. Sound good?"

Seeing the others nod, Harry couldn't help but follow their example. He did enjoy spending time with the Rangers, but he was not at all interested in playing anymore. "Alright, but I absolutely refuse to play myself. I think I've had enough of basketball for quite a while." The others laughed as Harry idly rubbed at the phantom pains in his cheek where the ball had smacked him during the putty battle earlier.

Zack stepped up next to him and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Don't worry Wizard-Who-Ain't-Got-Game, I'll protect you from the big, scary basketball."

Harry's hand snapped around to his back pocket and grabbed his wand, but before he could bring it around toward Zack, the Ranger had already teleported away and there was nothing for Harry to do but replace his wand and follow the others to the park.

-MR-

AN: The design of Hedwig, the Silver Owl Zord was based on an old Beast Wars Transformer toy that I dug out of my closet, though with a different color scheme and without the ear tufts on its head so as to be a Snowy Owl as opposed to whatever the toy is supposed to be. The toy, unoriginally named Prowl, was the first thing that came to mind when I thought about a robotic owl, so I went with it. If you google "Beast Wars Prowl," you should be able to find it if anyone is interested.

Thanks for reading and don't forget to review,

Tenstar12


	23. Chapter 23

Magi Ranger

By: Tenstar12

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or Power Rangers.

 **Chapter 23, In which, Zack (Sorta) Tries to Teach Harry to Dance…**

"Harry, come up here for a moment."

Forcing down a groan, Harry moved once more to the front of the group of students to stand before their teacher. This was only his fourth Karate class since Hedwig's return and in that week-and-a-bit he had been called up three times to demonstrate whatever they had been working on only to be corrected on some perceived flaw by the Red Ranger before the class was dismissed.

Normally Harry would be alright with this, Jason was the teacher and voice of experience after all, and at first he was, but after the second class in a row Harry was admonished to watch his footwork after having spent the previous day's practice with the other Rangers ironing out just that he was starting to get frustrated.

He wasn't the only one either. A few of the other students had started to shoot both Harry and Jason slightly uneasy looks. One of his classmates who had been in Jason's class for months had even told him that he couldn't see anything wrong with his form at all. This lead to an awkward sort of commiseration as he seemed convinced that Jason was just putting a little extra pressure on the new guy, as it were. He had assured Harry that Jason would lay off eventually, at the very least whenever they got another new student into the class.

For his part, Harry wasn't really so sure any more.

Internally bracing himself, Harry bowed to Jason before following his instructions to run through the day's kata by himself while Jason called out the moves, slowly walking around him as he did.

"Ready one. Punch two. Block three. Punch four. Back five."

"Kiai!"

By now, Harry had run through this kata enough he could probably do it without thinking about it. His Grid enhances learning curve had already placed him as one of the early stand outs in his class as he was able to take the various movements from new and uncertain to pure muscle memory with comparatively little practice. This ability, combined with the instruction from the other Rangers, had made most of Jason's nitpicking rather questionable, yet still it continued.

All the same, perhaps he was being too hard on the Red Ranger.

"Alright Harry, I see you've done some practicing. Your footwork was much better this time, but pay a bit more attention to your blocks and tighten up your ready stance a bit. Class dismissed."

Then again, maybe he was just bringing his grudge over to a new field now that he had an acknowledged position of authority over the wizard…

Bowing, Harry made his way to the locker room, filing his musings away again as he showered and changed before taking his place behind the Juice Bar counter. For the next thirty minutes or so, Harry went about his job, taking and filling orders for the various patrons of the Youth Center Juice Bar and pondering over the situation with Jason at the same time.

His musings were interrupted, however, by Zack as he approached the counter with an easy gait, but an uneasy look in his eyes. Harry studied the Black Ranger as he ordered smoothies for himself and the other Rangers, sans Tommy, who had taken spots at a nearby table. Zack really did look more than a bit off, though Harry couldn't exactly place why.

Finally, after sliding a tray with the Rangers' drinks to him across the counter, Harry decided to simply ask. "What's bugging you, Zack?"

The Ranger shuddered theatrically. "Don't say that word, man. Ugh… I can't stand bugs!"

Harry raised an eyebrow quizzically and held the look until Zack started speaking again. "Let's just say I had a close encounter of the creepy crawly kind earlier today and I can't shake the feeling off."

"Ah," Harry nodded sympathetically, briefly thinking of Ron's arachnophobia. "I didn't know you were afraid of bugs, Zack."

He nodded dramatically before groaning slightly. "Yeah, bugs and snakes aren't really my thing." He shot a quick look to either side before leaning in closer and speaking in a whisper. "Some of Rita's monsters have been a pretty close thing for me, let me tell you…"

Harry chuckled a bit. "Based on the stories I've heard about some of the one's I missed, I can only imagine."

Zack gave him a half-hearted glare before perking up slightly. "So, Harry… I noticed you're still having some trouble with Jason's class…"

It was Harry's turn to groan now. "And there's a topic I really don't want to think about. It seems like no matter what I do, I'm always doing something wrong."

Zack looked slightly uncomfortable for a moment and Harry realized that he was essentially complaining to him about one of his best friends. Before he could comment on it though, Zack seemed to have an idea. "Well hey, maybe Karate just isn't your thing? How about you come with me later when I go to the park to meet some prospective students for my martial arts class?"

Harry was rather surprised by this. "You're going to be teaching a class too?" It wasn't that Harry doubted Zack's ability, far from it as Zack was easily one of the best fighters amongst the Rangers after Jason and, more recently, Tommy. Harry had always just seen Zack as being a bit more easy-going than what a teacher typically was in his experience.

The Black Ranger, luckily enough, was apparently unaffected by Harry's show of doubt. "Yeah man, I'm going to start teaching some of my Hip Hop Kido and I'm meeting a bunch of kids in the park to give a demo. You should come along. Maybe it will be more your style."

Harry raised an eyebrow. That had sounded scarily like Zack wanted to teach Harry how to dance and fight at the same time like he tended to do. Harry had only really danced once in his life and that was during the Yule Ball in his fourth year. He somehow doubted that it would have any relation to what Zack intended to teach.

However, just as Harry was about to decline, he noticed a bit of movement out of the corner of his eye and glanced over to see Ernie standing conspicuously close. When he noticed Harry's gaze upon him, Ernie gave him a meaningful look and nodded toward Zack. Harry groaned internally. It seemed as if Ernie had heard Zack's offer and was once more going to tell/force Harry to go hang out with others and have a social life if he didn't take the leap himself.

Turning his attention back to Zack, Harry noticed a glimmer in the Ranger's eyes that told him he noticed the byplay from the slightly pushy but still overly friendly owner/operator of the Youth Center. "Alright, Zack," Harry sighed, idly rubbing at his eyes in irritation before fixing his glasses while Zack chuckled. "I'll come along to your demo. I don't know that it will work out for me, but it could be interesting to see anyway. Are any of the others coming along?"

Smiling now, Zack shook his head. "Naw, man. They have something else to take care of. So I'll come get you when I'm ready to leave, yeah?"

Harry felt a smile stretch across his own face as Zack's infectious good humor caught hold. "Sure, I get the feeling that Ernie will let me go as soon as you're ready."

Ernie just snorted and moved further from the two, apparently satisfied that Harry would be hanging out with his friends later.

Smiling still, Zack took the tray of drinks back to his table and passed them out to the other Rangers. Harry watched for a moment, nodding when Kimberly and Trini, the only two facing him, looked up and waved as Zack took his seat also facing toward the counter. Jason and Billy pivoted slightly and waved as well before they all got back into their conversation and Harry went back to work, taking another order and getting started on it.

He continued in the monotony for another twenty minutes or so until Trini walked up to him as he was wiping down a section of the countertop. "Hey, Harry…" She said, somewhat hesitantly as he stopped his cleaning and smiled at her.

"Hey, Trini. What's up?" When she didn't immediately respond, actually didn't even meet his eyes right away, Harry shot a quick glance over to the Rangers' table. Jason and Billy were still facing away, though they seemed focused on Kimberly who was talking to them with an eager smile on her face. Zack looked slightly unhappy though, perhaps even a tiny bit guilty if he was reading the look on his face right.

Before he could ponder it anymore, Trini finally spoke. "So… I was wondering if you wouldn't mind helping me out a bit later on… You see… We're studying entomology in my science class and I had to bring in a bunch of insects for the class to study. It was kind of an extra credit thing… Anyway, while I was researching for it, I learned about a statue in the park, the Forest Spirit Statue. According to the legend behind it, the statue provides protection against bad insects, and the city council wants to tear it down and put in a barbecue pit!"

At this point, it was rather obvious even to Harry that Trini was rambling a bit, but he couldn't bring himself to interrupt her, so he just smiled as she continued talking. "So anyway, I used the bugs that I had collected in a display at school to help tell people what was going on so they would sign a petition to protect the statue, but Bulk and Skull came along and let them all out. My teacher, Mr. Bartz, gave me a chance to collect some more and still get the credit and I was hoping you might be able to come along to help… please?"

All at once a few things became obvious to Harry. First, Zack's unease and his recent bug-based encounter. If Trini had been running something like that at school, it was an easy guess that the other Rangers were nearby. And knowing Bulk and Skull, they probably made sure to release the bugs on or around others as a matter of general principle. Second, the activity that the other Rangers were doing that prevented them from watching Zack's demo. They had probably already volunteered to help out Trini. And Third, the reason for Zack's slightly unhappy look, though the reason for the guilt escaped him.

Harry gave Trini an apologetic half smile at the hopeful look in her eyes. "I'm sorry Trini, but I already agreed to go with Zack to his martial arts demo he's doing later. He seems to think that I might find myself having less trouble with his dancing style than with Jason's Karate."

Trini's face fell rather dramatically before she took a deep breath and rallied herself, giving him a rather forced smile. "Oh… ok… It's alright. Billy, Jason, and Kim are coming along too so we should be ok to find enough…"

When she continued standing there awkwardly Harry couldn't help but speak again. "Hey, how about after Zack's demo is over I'll contact you and see if you still need any help. I should be able to round up a few more bugs for you with a quick spell or two. Would that work?"

Trini's eyes brightened a bit and her smile became slightly more natural. "Sure. Thanks, Harry."

Harry nodded and tapped his communicator. "I'll talk to you later then, yeah?"

"Definitely." And with that she walked back over to the table with the others, perhaps not with a spring in her step, but at least not sad anymore.

Harry watched her go for a moment, noting idly that the first thing Zack did when she sat down next to him was put a hand on her arm and apologize, if his lip reading was any good anyway. He spent a few moments pondering the action before any further thought on it was pushed aside when more customers came up to the counter and he was forced to get back to work.

-MR-

Harry spent the next half hour or so working until the Rangers all stood from their table and started making their way out around 5:30, waving to him as they went. Seeing this, Ernie all but chased Harry out from behind the counter, barely giving him time to wash his hands and remove his apron before he left.

Leaving the Youth Center himself, Harry was more than a bit shocked to find Zack behind the wheel of an older car, black of course, with the other Rangers nowhere in sight. After climbing into what was apparently Zack's car (he didn't even know Zack had a car!), Harry was told that the others had set out in the Rad Bug and were heading for the opposite side of the park from where he and Zack were going. That side of the park bordered on some untended fields and Billy was confident they would be able to locate Trini's replacement insects there fairly easily.

For his part, Zack expressed his general relief to not be going on the bug hunt with the others before he started expressing the virtues of Hip Hop Kido. It was apparently a fighting style he had invented himself, based heavily off of his own Karate expertise alongside his dancing skills. It was something that the Ranger was imminently proud of, and he was both incredibly "jazzed" and very nervous at the possibility of having students of his own in his own style of martial arts.

The drive to the park took around ten minutes and they were unable to find a nearby parking spot so it was nearly 6:00 by the time Zack and Harry arrived to meet with the assembled children with their parents standing nearby. Zack wasted no time at all gathering everyone around and thanking them for coming before jumping right into his demo.

As Zack began to move, Harry noticed a few moves he had seem Zack use in both spars with Jason and against the putties they tended to fight regularly. With his limited expertise, Harry judged that the style was very heavily based on dancing, but Zack tended to lash out suddenly with various quick strikes and spinning kicks before moving right back into a dance move. It came across as very unpredictable and seemed to have a lot of jumps and flips, though Harry was more than a bit convinced that Zack was just showing off now to try and generate some interest in the watching kids.

When he finished with a bow, everyone seemed excited, and Zack was immediately surrounded by several children of various ages, though none of them were older than Zack himself, all of whom were raving about how "cool" the style was. Harry just shook his head, chuckling to himself as the Black Ranger soaked it up, running over the basic rules of martial arts being for self-defense and such, interjecting a bit of reality into the awe the children seemed to hold him in at the moment.

If the kids registered it, they didn't seem to show it.

"Excuse me…" Harry turned to face a woman who had to be one of the parents who were watching their children. "Are you teaching the class too?"

Harry flinched in surprise at her question before smiling. "Oh, no ma'am. I'm just a friend of Zack's. He asked me to come along to see if I wanted to learn too, but I don't think that it's really my style…"

The woman smiled back at him as she turned to look back toward where Zack was now showing the kids a few "simple" moves. Apparently the demo was turning into an impromptu lesson of sorts. "I see. It's just, I've never heard of anything like this before… My son has wanted to learn some kind of martial arts and I was about to enroll him in one of the karate classes at the Youth Center when we heard about this, and he seems so excited now. Has this young man taught anyone before?"

Harry shook his head as he responded. "Not that I know of…" Then, realizing what he had just said, he quickly backpedaled. "But Zack has been practicing martial arts for years and is a very skilled fighter. He created Hip Hop Kido himself from the ground up and tested it against Jason Scott, the teacher of the Youth Center Karate classes. I've spent enough time around him to know that he'll be a great teacher."

The woman seemed satisfied with his answer and thanked him before moving back toward a cluster of other parents nearby. When they all started talking Harry was more than glad he had corrected himself during their conversation. He just hoped that it was enough to prevent him from having sabotaged Zack's chance at getting some of these kids as students.

"Harry," Zack called, snapping him out of his thoughts as he jogged up. "Hey, let's run back to my car real quick. I forgot the music cassette and the kids want to try out a few more moves so we need some tunes."

Harry blinked in confusion, glancing over at the kids to see one trying to imitate some of Zack's moves (badly) in front of the rest only for them to copy him shortly after. "Uh… alright…"

Zack smiled before setting off at a steady jog, his infectious energy causing Harry to start off after him. Even still, Zack's head start and better conditioning meant he reached the car first and was digging through a few things in the trunk when Harry arrived, breathing a bit heavily.

"Ah ha!" Zack shouted suddenly, standing upright with a cassette tape held in his hand. "I've got it. Can't believe I forgot it, man!" Zack laughed as he closed the trunk and turned to face Harry. "So what did you think? I saw you were talking to one of the moms, what did she have to say? Do you think you'd like to give it a try?" Even while Zack was speaking he was already quick walking back toward the kids. It almost looked like he was forcing himself not to start running in his eagerness.

Harry rolled his eyes as he started after him. "Hey, slow down a second Zack. I'm not in bad shape, but I still can't take all this running back and forth without a bit of a break."

Zack froze for a second before offering an apology through his easygoing laughter. "Sorry, man. I'm just so pumped. The kids really seemed into it. This is exciting!"

Harry smiled as he patted Zack's shoulder. "Wait, you're excited? I really couldn't tell." Harry just rolled his eyes again when Zack laughed. "Seriously though, you're doing great. The kids really seemed into it and I'm sure most of them will be singing your praises for some time to come. The parent I was talking to expressed some concern that you might not be an experienced teacher, but I did what I could to calm her fears. And no, I really don't think Hip Hop Kido is for me, Zack. I'm having enough trouble with regular Karate. I feel like a more energetic fighting style would just set me back even further than I already am. And besides, the only other time I've ever really danced, it was an unmitigated disaster."

Zack shot Harry a mysterious smile and shook his head. "You know, that may have to change at some point… but anyway, I kinda thought that might be the case. I just figured I'd offer anyway. Since it seems you're having a bit of… trouble in Jason's class and all that…"

When Zack trailed off they both settled into a bit of an uneasy silence. Harry didn't say anything further because he was once more pondering over his difficulties in Jason's class. The more he thought about it, the more he was sure that Jason was just picking on him because he could…

He was snapped out of his thoughts when they rounded a bend and came within sight of Zack's potential students. Zack was the first to react. "What the heck…?" The two Rangers exchanged a glance as they looked upon the scene before running up to the group of children and parents who were all lying on the ground.

"Hey! Hey, come on you guys…" Zack said uneasily, kneeling down and shaking some of the kids while Harry checked on a few of the parents. "Hey come on. This isn't nap time, wake up."

Glancing around briefly, Harry checked for any observers before pulling his coin from his back pocket and shifting it into his wand. With a quick swish and a mumbled incantation, he performed a diagnostic charm on the prone people. When he got the results, he frowned. "They're all asleep…"

"Yeah, and they aren't waking up…" Zack mumbled. "Oh man, what's going on here?"

"I don't know, but it's a fair bet that Rita has something to do with it…" Harry scowled, standing once more as he looked around.

"No kidding…" Zack trailed off before activating his communicator. "Zordon, this is Zack, come in."

"Yes, Zackary," Zordon's voice came through clearly.

"Harry and I have a big problem down here at the park. All these kids and their parents are asleep and we can't wake them."

"It seems that Rita has unleashed a horde of moths that shed sleeping powder as they fly. You both must leave the area. You are surely the next targets."

Zack and Harry exchanged another look before Harry once more resumed his lookout, this time directing his gaze a bit higher as he watched for any flying insects. Zack turned back to his communicator. "But we can't leave them here, Zordon."

"Do not worry, Zackary. I will watch over them as best I can from here. If something goes wrong I will take the necessary steps."

Zack shot Harry another uneasy look before nodding needlessly. "Alright, Zordon. If you say so…" Zack trailed off for a moment before letting out a short cry of shock. "Over there!"

Harry quickly spun in the direction Zack was pointing and immediately caught sight of a cloud of dozens of moths with pure white wings flying steadily toward them. As they flew, they were leaving behind a trail of white powder that dusted the ground behind them, most likely the sleeping powder that Zordon warned them of.

Zack ran up to Harry's side and began pulling him away from them. "Come on Harry, if they catch us it's gonna be Rip Van Winkle time!"

Confused momentarily by the reference, Harry nodded and started running after the Black Ranger. "Right, but where are we gonna go?"

Zack just kept running for several seconds with the wizard right behind him. As they ran, Harry noticed two things, one that the moths were keeping pace with them easily, and two, there were a few more people lying around them asleep. Harry wouldn't have been surprised if the moths had circled the park to knock out everyone before coming after the two of them, but what was Rita's plot here?

"Hey!" Zack suddenly shouted, slowing down to grab Harry's arm as they ran. "I have an idea! What about the Forest Spirit Statue! Trini was saying earlier that it's supposed to protect people from bad bugs, right? Well, these bugs are about as bad as it gets! Let's go!"

Harry was a bit skeptical that an old statue and a legend would prove to protect them from Rita's attack, but the Black Ranger was already well ahead of him, running much faster than before now that he had a clear goal in mind. His fear of insects was probably driving him more than a bit if Harry was any judge. Panting a bit as he ran, Harry picked up his pace as best he could, idly glancing back to see the moths were still pacing him, almost as if they were herding them…

-MR-

By the time they reached the statue, Harry was breathing quite heavily. He almost didn't register Zack's words when he spoke again. "Oh man! This can't be right. The statue is covered with these things!"

Harry forced himself into a standing position, holding his wand tightly in hand as he looked at the statue himself. It was a statue of a woman wearing robes of some kind and was sculpted in mid leap. Many of the finer details had been eroded after so long being outdoors, but it was still a rather nice piece of art, aside from the fact that it was indeed covered in moths.

Then Harry noticed a small part of the statue to seem to flake away before it suddenly started moving and became another white moth. "And that's not all Zack." Harry grabbed his arm and pointed out another moth forming from the statue. "These things are coming from it! I'm getting the feeling that Rita did something to the statue…"

Zack pointed up at the statue's head. "Yeah! You're right. Those snakes in its hair are supposed to be flowers. I saw it on a picture of the statue at Trini's display this morning!"

Frowning, Harry waved his wand and sent a diagnostic spell at the statue, only for it to hit a shield of some kind and fizzle out. "Yeah, that's definitely not right." Harry mumbled.

"I bet Rita sent it!" Zack near shouted, anger overtaking his former fear as he glared at the bugs. "You think we should morph?"

Harry looked back, seeing the moths were spreading out to surround them now. "Probably wouldn't hurt."

Zack, seeing the moths behind them as well, nodded firmly. "Alright then, Its Morphin' time!"

"MASTODON!" "MAGI RANGER, POWER UP!"

When Harry was once more able to move out of his morphing pose he saw Zack had already manifested his Power Axe. "Alright," Zack said, gripping a part of his axe below the blade and sliding it down the handle until it clicked into place at the butt of the shaft. "I'm gonna see what this is all about!"

Gripping the axe near the blade end, Zack held it at his hip with the bottom of the handle pointing toward the statue. Before Harry could ask what he was doing, the weapon let out a blast of energy from the bottom end that flew forward and blasted the statue, blowing it to pieces and engulfing them in a cloud of dust.

"Bloody Hell…" Harry mumbled, staring at Zack blankly. "I don't think I've ever seen your axe do that outside of the Power Blaster…"

Zack chuckled, patting his weapon affectionately as he switched it back to its axe configuration. "Yeah, it's pretty awesome."

When the dust cleared, Zack and Harry both recoiled at the sight of a large spider-like monster. "Aw man, I knew it!" Zack groaned as the monster hopped down from the remains of the pedestal the statue had been on.

It had a rather large round body, much larger than the statue it came from strangely enough, and stood on its back most legs while waving the other three sets around threateningly while staring at the two Rangers through its many eyes.

"It had to be a spider," Zack continued as the monster just stood there making growling noises. "I hate spiders…"

A roar of fury from the right caught Harry's attention and he turned in time to see Goldar landing nearby, brandishing his sword. "And a Goldar!" Harry quipped. "I hate Goldars!"

"So, we meet again, Mageling!" Goldar growled, stepping up next to the spider monster. "I hope you don't expect your fancy suit to make any difference in our battle!"

Harry sighed and summoned the Magi Staff with a gesture. "Goldar, you weren't able to beat me before I became a full-fledged Ranger and there's no way you can do it now."

Before Harry could charge to meet the golden plated monkey, Zack grabbed his arm. "Hey, Harry," he said uneasily, eyeing the monsters before them. "I don't suppose you could let me take on Goldar, could you?"

Harry rolled his eyes behind his helmet. "Alright, but don't take too long. And I hope Zordon is calling in the cavalry already…"

With a nod, Zack dismissed his axe, the weapon merely glowing briefly before it vanished, and pulled out his blade blaster and converting it to blade form. With a cry, the two Rangers charged the two, swapping positions mid charge to line them up with their chosen opponents.

Goldar braced himself with his weapon held in front of him and met Zack's faster charge with a block before pushing him backward.

Harry led with a spell. " _Arania Exumai_!" Harry cast the spell with his own magic, not wanting to take the time just now to fuel it with Grid Power, but it still had the pleasant effect of knocking the spider back several yards and onto its round back.

The sheer size of its torso let it easily roll back to its feet, but by the time it did, Harry was right on top of it and made a quick pair of strikes with the Magi Staff, guided by the Grid, and once more knocked it off its feet in a shower of sparks.

The monster merely continued growling as it rolled back to its feet. "You know," Harry mused aloud as he took a stance. "I already like you more than Rita's other monsters. For one, you don't talk much."

With an inarticulate roar, the spider's top two arms jerked towards him, emitting a continuous stream of white webbing that stuck fast to his suit and glued his arms to his sides. "Well, that's not good…" Harry was almost immediately knocked off his feet as the spider charged him, using its bulk to bowl him over easily, making him drop his staff as he fell.

"Harry!" Zack shouted as he caught sight of the Magi Ranger's predicament. "Hang on, Harry! I'll AAH!"

Zack was cut off as Goldar knocked him to the ground with a single swipe of his sword. "So little 'Magi Ranger,'" Goldar said Harry's new title mockingly as he approached. "You haven't even been a Ranger for a month yet and already you have fallen to my Empress's might!"

Harry grimaced. "I wouldn't count me out just yet, Goldar. You know how well that's worked out for you in the past."

"Hmmm…" Goldar stroked his chin in thought for a moment before nodding. "You make a good point, Mageling… Perhaps I should just kill you now then!"

Harry paused for a moment. "You know what, on second thought, count away! You won't find me complaining."

Goldar laughed sadistically as he stood over the trapped wizard, holding his sword overhead. "Farewell, Mageling!"

Goldar's apparent triumph was cut off by an avian screech as Hedwig came at him in a stoop, the force of her blow making Goldar stumble to the side and leaving Harry an opening to roll the opposite way. "Thanks for the save Hedwig," Harry panted as he struggled to his feet, his arms still stuck to his sides. "I don't suppose you have an idea to get me free, do you?"

 _-I do not believe so, Harry/Wizard, but the Yellow-Plated Monkey is coming back already!-_

Harry looked up just in time to see Goldar was indeed charging him again with the spider monster right behind him. Just before Harry was once more struck down, the charging monsters were hit by multiple bursts of color and sent to the ground in a shower of sparks. Harry turned to see Zack back on his feet again with the other four core Rangers all running over, each of them brandishing their blade blasters.

"Good timing… again…" Harry nodded to them as Zack made his way over and helped pull one of Harry's arms free. Once he had that mobility, he was able to summon his staff back to his hand and vanish the rest of the webbing from himself just as the monsters regained their feet.

Goldar growled seeing the new arrivals. "You may have beaten me, Rangers, but I don't think you will have the same luck with the spider!"

Goldar vanished in a flash of light just as Harry felt a familiar pulse of magical energy from above. He glanced up to see a speck of red light that he realized was Rita's staff coming down to grow the spider.

Harry's mind started racing. If the staff managed to touch down, Rita's spell would grow the spider monster. But they were in the middle of Angel Grove Park and there were a number of unconscious civilians around here from the moth's sleeping powder. With the way the giant monster/robot battles moved around, there was a better than even chance that the immobilized people could end up squished.

Harry's eyes narrowed under his helmet. Not on his watch.

With determination, Harry stepped free of the cluster of Rangers and spun his staff once, gathering just enough Power for the most basic of Kinetic Magic Spells: the Forcewave. The spell did exactly what it sounded like, merely created a directed wave of force that emanated from the caster and spread out until it ran out of power. In this case, Harry sent it flying on an intercept course with Rita's staff.

The visible wave of kinetic Power hit the falling staff and flashed brightly as the two magical energies conflicted. Unfortunately for Rita, with her staff so far from her palace there was nothing she could do to prevent Harry's spell from throwing off her own and her staff flipped wildly through the air, finally landing on its side between the Rangers and the spider monster that was now growling in a somehow confused sounding manner as Rita's spell fizzled out.

"Woah…" Billy said with a small amount of awe. "Good idea, Harry…"

"Yeah, now we need to capitalize on it!" Jason shouted, but Harry was already moving, sprinting as fast as he could toward the staff. It was his hope that he could recover it, and the Elder Wand by consequence before Rita could do anything to stop him. This was, after all, the first time he had it without Goldar, a bunch of putties, or Rita herself nearby, and with the other Rangers in the area, they should be able to hold off the one monster that was there, right?

Just as he dove to grab the scepter, it flashed bright red and vanished before his fingers could close around it. Rita's cackling voice immediately started echoing from above as thunder boomed across the sky. "A very valiant effort, Mageling, but you'll have to do better than that."

Harry climbed quickly back to his feet, dusting himself off idly as he went, and glared at the spider monster that was still standing in front of him. He had just lost a very good chance at recovering the Elder Wand and he felt his irritation growing because of it. With this surge of emotions, came a surge of Power and he felt the Grid take over once more. " **Let me show you what you are now capable of with a little help from your owl friend, Harry…** "

Harry took a wide stance, spreading his feet around shoulder width apart as he began spinning his staff around himself, passing it from one hand to the other as he brought it behind his back and back around. This time, instead of internalizing the gathered Power for a spell, Harry felt the Power gathering at the tip of the Magi Staff as it had did when he used his "incomplete" finisher under the Grid's guidance before. After a few moments of charging, Harry shifted his stance, thrusting the weapon into the air just as Hedwig flew down, flaring her wings to land on this newly presented perch with her talons fitting easily over the top bar jutting out from the top of the staff.

- _This should be interesting, Harry/wizard. Let us destroy this spider-thing._ -

With Hedwig now perched on the top of the Staff, Harry began moving again, this time though, He brought the staff back down to his side with his arm drawn back to thrust it forward. As he did, Hedwig began taking in the gathered Power, glowing with a bright purple aura that was especially bright around the Resurrection Stone at the top of her head.

With a final smirk at the now doomed monster, Harry thrust his staff forward in a lunge. "Take this!" Hedwig shot off the staff like a rocket, the boosters coming from her sides leaving a bright trail behind her as she covered the admittedly short distance between Harry and the spider in less than a second before tearing through the monster with a bright flash of light and beating her wings to gain altitude to bleed off the excess speed and Power with a screech of victory.

Harry stood from his extended crouch slowly as the spider began to teeter back and forth, purple electricity sparking from the hole in its center ever few seconds. Still moving slowly, almost dramatically, Harry turned away from the monster to face the other Rangers who stood watching, rather dumbfounded. With a swift jerk of his arm, Harry swung the Magi Staff out to his right side, the last of the built up power vanishing in a burst at the same instant that Hedwig landed on his left shoulder and the spider finally fell to the ground and exploded, making his vest/cloak flutter in the resulting shockwave.

When he once more felt in control of himself, Harry sighed. "Alright, I'll admit that I felt cool doing that, but that still doesn't mean I like all the random hand waving I have to do all the time…"

-MR-

Once they had demorphed and Zordon confirmed that the sleeping powder moths were gone with the destruction of the spider monster, Zack rushed back to his students, leaving Harry standing awkwardly with Trini, Jason, Billy, and Kimberly.

"So…" Harry started after Zack had left, Hedwig in her organic looking form perched on his shoulder and preening his hair. "How'd the bug hunt go?"

Trini groaned. "We had all that we needed, but we had to leave them behind when we morphed to come help you and Zack. We'll have to go back and get them. I hope none of the bugs got out…"

Jason winced slightly before looking toward the clearly setting sun. "I can't, Trini. It's getting late and I need to get going. My parents weren't expecting me to be out too much later than I already have been…"

"Yeah, and I need to get started on my homework." Kimberly sighed, looking less than thrilled with the idea. "I may not be bringing in bugs, but Mr. Bartz still gave the rest of us some bug work to do before class tomorrow."

Trini turned to Billy, but he too shook his head. "I have a few experiments going in my garage that I need to get back to check on."

Looking dejected, but slightly hopeful, Trini turned to Harry. The wizard smiled. "Well, I did promise that I'd help you out after Zack's demo, didn't I? Since he seems to have left me here…" Harry walked up to Trini and held out his arm as Hedwig took wing. "May I escort you, milady?"

Laughing lightly and with a blush on her face, Trini took Harry's arm and straightened her back. "Of course, good sir. I would be most appreciative."

Harry did his best to tone out Kimberly's stifled giggles as he and Trini made their way away from the Rangers and across the park under the setting sun with Hedwig flying circles overhead.

-MR-

Thanks for reading and don't forget to review,

Tenstar12


	24. Chapter 24

Magi Ranger

By: Tenstar12

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or Power Rangers.

 **Chapter 24, A Fantastic Chapter with Some Lovely Writing in Which There aren't Any Swallows but There is an Owl and References to Giant Floating Heads That Aren't Zordon…**

Things were coming to a head.

It had started the day after the Spider monster attacked. Because it had been so late and so many of the Rangers had non-Ranger things to do, Zordon hadn't called them to the Command Center for their debriefing until the next day after school let out. It was there that Jason started in on Harry about his attempt to regain the Elder Wand during the battle.

It really made no sense in the grand scheme of things, but the Red Ranger was angry that Harry had moved to try and regain his stolen property when the opportunity presented itself. Apparently he wasn't supposed to break ranks like he had, and destroying the monster solo had somehow irked Jason even further.

Although Zordon had largely defused Jason's minor tantrum, the attitude persisted for the next few weeks. Rita was still not attacking with her former frequency so Harry's schedule was largely filled with training Karate, studying Grid magic, working at the Youth Center, and occasionally being pushed into hanging out with his friends by Ernie. In his Karate class, Jason continued to call Harry out on seemingly minor things, sometimes when there were other students who were having more trouble than Harry himself.

When Rita next attacked, it was a rather personal assault on Kimberly. Kimberly had won some kind of contest at Angel Grove High School and was selected to design her own float for the "Flower Power Peace Parade." She and Tommy were preparing a model float that was to be submitted to a design team to be recreated at full size when a group of Putties attacked them and destroyed the model. Kimberly had been rather upset as she explained that there wouldn't be any way to fix it before the deadline that evening.

Billy had even asked Harry if he could just fix it with magic, but while the foam pieces of the model could be repaired, the real flowers that she had used on the model and that the Putties had shredded were organic and so couldn't simply be made whole again with magic.

When Rita had later sent down a monster called the Spit Flower that devoured flowers of all kinds and turned them into a bizarre kind of biting blossom that drained the vitality and energy from whatever they latched onto, Kimberly only became more affronted. With all the flowers in Angel Grove for the parade there was plenty around for the monster to snack on and so the core Rangers charged forth, only to almost immediately fall prey to the energy draining flowers the monster sent at them.

Meanwhile, Tommy and Harry had taken the remains of Kimberly's float back to Tommy's garage. The Green Ranger had a notion that if Harry could use his magic to transfigure replicas of the flowers that it would work just as well as real ones for the purposes of the model float. So it was that with a few flicks of his golden wand, Harry fixed the foam body of the model and started creating the flowers that Tommy needed based on the pictures and plans Kimberly had assembled in the days prior.

When they had gotten an urgent call from Zordon a mere thirty minutes into their work, the two had morphed and rushed to aid the other Rangers with the now giant Spit Flower monster. The battle was a bit tense, but with the help of the Dragonzord and Hedwig, the Rangers were able to defeat the monster before it could spread its leeching blossoms all over Angel Grove.

And the look of shock and happiness on Kimberly's face the following Saturday when her float was featured on the live news coverage of the Flower Power Peace Parade was quite the sight to see.

Another two weeks without an attack from Rita found Harry and the Rangers preparing for a Halloween Party at the Youth Center. By this time, Harry was starting to get fed up with the general attitude displayed by Jason pretty much any time they weren't morphed and in battle. If he wasn't all but picking on Harry in Karate class, Jason was making vaguely rude comments during general conversation, which only made the other Rangers feel awkward and uneasy when he did so. When you added that to his general unease on October 31st, you had a rather disgruntled Magi Ranger.

Even so, Harry did his best to shake off his disquiet and even planned to join the others at Ernie's Halloween Party that evening. He showed up in a set of conjured purple robes covered in bright silver stars with a matching pointed wizard's hat. He transfigured himself a long grey beard and wig and a pair of half-moon spectacles. Everyone was rather impressed with his costume, though the Rangers were a bit skeptical when he told them he was dressed as a tribute to his old Headmaster. He may have had some issues with how Dumbledore handled things during the war against Voldemort, but he still held a great deal of respect for him.

The Rangers, particularly Kimberly, just couldn't wrap their heads around the old wizard's fashion sense.

Despite their lack of enthusiasm for his costume, or at least the reasons behind his choosing of it, Harry had a rather good time even though he spent most of the night serving drinks from the Juice Bar. He was able to watch as Zack, dressed up as King Tutt, was shut down yet again by Angela when he asked her to dance. He watched Jason and Billy, dressed as Robin Hood and Sherlock Holmes respectively, laugh at the Black Ranger while Kimberly the princess and Trini/Pocahontas were pulled out to dance by a few of their classmates from school. He saw Tommy come in at first, but he had vanished rather quickly. Apparently his costume wasn't quite ready yet, despite the fact that the party was already going.

During the party, a person in a Frankenstein costume had arrived and started causing some trouble. Though minor at first and easily mistaken for the person acting out the part of their character, things eventually got bad when they all out assaulted and chased Bulk and Skull out of the Youth Center. Things quieted down after a bit until Billy returned, apparently having snuck out after the Frankenstein, and reported that it was one of Rita's monsters.

Following a call from Zordon, they learned that Rita was collecting some "super putty" which would apparently allow her to create stronger Putty Patrollers and that the monster was a distraction. It was apparently a distraction that they couldn't ignore because the next thing Harry knew, they were morphed and facing off against the monster.

The Frankenstein was a surprisingly effective fighter, all considered. Even though Harry and the core Rangers charged it again and again, it continued to knock them all back with apparent ease. The biggest change came when an earthquake split one of the street in Angel Grove proper down the middle, wide enough to allow Rita to come floating out atop a giant ball of red clay, mocking and taunting all she saw as she went. When the sorceress got high enough, she threw down her staff to grow the Frankenstein, idly countering Harry's attempt to Forcewave her staff aside while laughing mockingly, before floating off once more and returning to her Palace on the Moon.

With the Frankenstein now giant, the Zords were called and the monster was eventually defeated after Tommy finally arrived. Apparently he had been ambushed outside the Youth Center by a bunch of Putties, which prevented his speedy arrival.

Though Harry found it hard to believe, the Halloween Party and costume contest continued on after the battle like nothing had happened. Apparently, things like that had been happening so often that the citizens of Angel Grove were able to brush it off like nothing.

Harry just figured that it came from living there for so long, but he wasn't entirely sure.

A mere three days later, Tommy nearly stuck his foot in things.

He and Jason were at the Youth Center practicing for a "Team Ninja Competition," a martial arts competition where two fighters fought in a series of rounds with another team of two. Their opponents were to be a pair of "professional" ninjas apparently managed/hired by Bulk and Skull, though how that came to be nobody could really explain. The only problem was that the two Rangers were having a very hard time coordinating with each other. They were both trying to take the lead on things and show off at the same time and were throwing the other off when they did.

Things didn't get much better when Tommy practically called Jason out on how he had been treating Harry during a verbal bout of disagreement and accusation. Harry himself only caught the tail end of the conversation as he was working at the time, but it was the first time he had gotten any kind of solid confirmation that there was something off with Jason's actions during the Karate classes beyond his own instincts. The confrontation had caused Jason to storm out of the Youth Center, ending their practice session early, and brought Tommy over to the Juice Bar to chat with Harry and explain what had happened.

It really all came down to a similar issue to Harry's own with Jason. Both Jason and Tommy were leader type personalities and they were clashing because of it. The only difference was that Tommy was a bit more of a subdued individual, much like Harry had been before his ordeal during the war, and so would be more likely to back down or compromise in the long run. Jason had been the leader of his group for so long, even before they became the Power Rangers, that he tended to react poorly to any perceived threat to his position. Tommy's laid back attitude would allow him to settle into a more non-threatening role if he let it, and it was this knowledge that led Harry to encourage Tommy to try and go a bit easier on the Red Ranger, though he did thank him for the support.

Later that same day, Rita sent down her new "Super Putties," a much more durable and dangerous version of the shock troopers she had been using so far. The biggest difference in these Putties was that, other than being tougher, they could shape shift their hands into either a large round weight or a blade like form at will. This additional versatility, along with the ability to reform any time they were destroyed by the Rangers' conventional tactics, made the battle long and daunting.

Finally, after Harry, Zack, Trini, Billy, and Kimberly fought for nearly an hour to try and keep the Super Putties from destroying parts of the city, largely only by getting their own butts kicked, Jason and Tommy returned from a special mission from Zordon. They brought with them new weapons for the core Rangers in the form of a type of blaster that could destroy the super putties, a new Zord ally in the form of a robotic brontosaurus named Titanus, and a new camaraderie between the two as they had mended their differences through their trials and learned to work together.

They went on to win the Team Ninja Competition, which, ironically enough, had been delayed by Rita's attack just long enough for the two to arrive and compete. The day ended with Jason pointedly ignoring Harry, apparently having taken the stance of saying nothing if he couldn't say anything good. Harry had a feeling that Tommy had gotten the Red Ranger to lay off him a bit, and it was confirmed the next day as Jason barely acknowledged him during his next Karate Class.

Harry thanked Tommy in private to which the Green Ranger had explained that what Jason was doing wasn't right, or even professional as Jason was supposed to be an instructor, and Tommy had pointed that out to him.

Harry just hoped that it would last.

The following Saturday, Kimberly received another low blow from Rita as the witch stole and enchanted Kimberly's grandmother's spinning wheel that the teen had borrowed for use in her school's production of Rumplestiltsken. The spinning wheel, now the Wheel of Destruction, was an apparently sentient, flying spiked wheel that could destroy nearly anything it touched.

The wheel itself wasn't too difficult to deal with all said and done, as Harry was able to magically freeze it in place long enough for Hedwig to rip into it in her giant Zord form. The biggest problem came in the form of Goldar and Scorpina who were grown and causing a great deal of difficulty for the Megazord with their double team tactics until Hedwig destroyed the Wheel and helped to drive them off once Tommy and the Dragonzord arrived as well.

Luckily enough, when the Wheel of Destruction was destroyed, the spinning wheel magically reappeared back in the school where Rita had stolen it from so the others were able to continue with their production of the play the next night. Harry was invited to attend and did so, though he was one of the only ones who didn't laugh when Bulk's portrayal of the titular character somehow left him with his pants ripped wide open, causing the entire play to descend into farce.

Harry was honestly starting to feel bad for the bully with all of the random unfortunate accidents that happened to him all the time.

Still, not everything had been bad/weird in the last month or so. Zack had stepped up his friendliness since the day of his Hip Hop Kido demo and had actually invited Harry over to hang out a few times. Though their first time involved Zack playing a Monty Python movie and spending the rest of the day quoting it to Harry in a very bad British Accent. Harry appreciated the good old British humor. Zack's interpretation of it, not so much.

Tommy was also spending a bit more time talking to Harry while he was working. This picked up a bit more after the Green Ranger told off Jason during the whole Super Putty fiasco, but his presence and helpful advice while Harry was practicing his Karate was still noted fairly regularly.

But more than either of those two, Trini had been hanging around more often than before. In fact, Harry had noticed that she was coming by to see him for a little while at least once a day during his shift and tended to stand nearby him as often as she could when the Rangers were all hanging out together. He wasn't complaining in the least, though he was more than a bit confused by the secretive smiles Zack and Kimberly were giving him when they thought he wasn't looking.

And that brought him to today. Saturday, November 13th. Harry was sitting at his desk in his room in the Command Center, poking and prodding at a gold Galleon in front of him with his wand while mumbling to himself. "Just a tiny pulse of magic to destabilize this rune… now direct the overload like so… and syphon off the excess and move it over here to shut down this bit…"

What he was doing was the result of several hours of experimentation over the last few weeks. He had come to the conclusion that while working for Ernie wasn't a bad gig, he still needed to think about his future. He couldn't exactly be a Power Ranger forever, right? And even if he could, he would still need a way to pay the bills and the meager wages Ernie paid him wouldn't be able to do that, so his best current resort was his stash of Galleons.

It took him many hours, many headaches, and more than a few melted or otherwise ruined bits of gold before he hit upon a process to successfully remove the goblin enchantments forged into the coins. Even then, it was only possible because of the different type of Power he could wield thanks to the Grid and Zordon's teaching. As it turned out, Grid Power was rather good at overloading and destabilizing Goblin runes and protections, though figuring out the proper way to do so without completely destroying the coin in the process had still taken time to figure out.

He had lost a few dozen Galleons that way, though considering he had many thousands stashed away in his mokeskin bag that had come with him through the Veil, he felt it was an acceptable sacrifice.

"Alright… now I just do this… and then like so… and silencing charm and…" Harry closed his eyes tightly before bringing his left forearm up to block the direct line of sight between his eyes and the coin just before it let out a blindingly bright flash of light. The first time he had successfully disenchanted a Galleon he had been blinded by the flash as well as deafened by an ear piercing shriek that the enchantments caused just before breaking, most likely a last ditch defense by the goblins to potentially alert them of someone tampering with their coins.

Or maybe they were just vindictive. Either explanation worked for Harry at this point.

The flash of light was bright enough to give him spots in his vision even through his closed eyes, and if he only brought up his arm, he got spots in his peripherals for hours as well. The silencing charm was something he figured out after the first coin, especially after Alpha came rushing into his room wielding what looked like a futuristic egg beater and waving it around while demanding to know what was wrong, not that Harry could hear him through the ringing in his ears.

With a sigh and a slight smile of accomplishment, Harry scooped up what was now nothing more than a strange looking solid gold coin and placed it onto a stack of two others to the side. Those three coins were the result of nearly four hours of work and, according to Alpha, were worth a bit over $1000.00. The process of disenchanting them worked very well, but it wasn't really a fast one, though it only took him a bit over an hour now compared to nearly three for his first few. His Occlumency allowed him to recall all the necessary steps perfectly, but it was still up to him to actually perform them with any kind of speed or efficiency.

Grunting slightly as he stretched, Harry idly reached into the mokeskin bag on the desk before him and pulled out another coin. Shaking his arms a bit to try and loosen them up, Harry hunched over the coin on the desk before stopping and shooting a glance at his communicator watch. The morning Karate class should be over by now.

Harry let his thoughts drift slightly. It hadn't even been a week after Tommy confronted Jason before the Red Ranger started in on him again. By this point, Harry had only just started to relax again, so even the slightest hint of Jason's former antagonistic treatment meant Harry needed a break. So after Jason called Harry up for pointless repetitions of the basic Kata that Harry could probably do in his sleep by now followed by Jason nitpicking over some detail or another that irritated Harry and confused the other students who by now were starting to become concerned as well, Harry made the decision to give his Saturday class a miss.

This was how he found himself spending his morning in the Command Center disenchanting Galleons instead of at the Youth Center already. But the Karate Class was over now, and that meant it was almost time for his shift at the Juice Bar.

With another sigh, Harry rose from his chair, idly returning his wand to coin form and slipping it into his pocket, and stretched once more as he made his way out into the Command Center proper.

"Harry," Zordon commented almost immediately. "How did your work on the galleons go this morning?"

"Pretty good, Zordon." Harry responded. "I managed to get another three done."

"That brings your total up to sixteen coins now, correct?" Alpha queried. "That means the total monetary value of the gold is… over five thousand dollars!"

"Yes it does," Harry smiled, nodding to the excitable robot. "Not bad for a few weeks work, eh?"

Zordon chuckled slightly. "Indeed, Harry. You have done well to get so much done in so little time and against almost entirely unfamiliar magics too."

Harry blushed slightly before nodding again. "Yeah, well…" He trailed off, unable to find any further words while Zordon continued chuckling good-naturedly.

He was broken out of his slightly uncomfortable silence when Hedwig landed on his shoulder and butted her head against his own. – _Harry/Wizard, you are leaving again?_ -

Harry quickly shook himself out of his mental freeze before responding. "Yes, Hedwig. I was planning on heading back into Angel Grove. I need a break from the Galleons for a bit and it's almost time for my shift at the Youth Center anyway."

Hedwig bobbed her head once before turning and preening at his hair for a moment while she thought. Finally, she spoke again. – _Then you will take me with you. I will not be left behind in this sky-wall room again._ -

Harry flinched slightly. He knew that tone. Hedwig had gotten it from listening to Hermione so much and only used it when she was dead set in getting what she wanted. "Hedwig…" He started slowly. "I can't just-"

Hedwig's fierce yellow eyes pierced into his own sharply as she leaned down to allow the eye contact. Even the slightly glossed one seemed to cut straight into his mind. – _Harry/Wizard, I came here to protect you. To protect my human. I cannot do that if you leave me in the sky-wall room all the time. You get into so much trouble that I need to be around all the time._ -

"Hedwig, I-" This time Hedwig just clacked her beak sharply, cutting him off mid-sentence. When he opened his mouth again to speak, she let out a sharp screech until he closed his mouth again.

Finally, Zordon started laughing once more. "I suppose Alpha and I shall have to arrange for you to have the proper papers and licenses to own and train a bird of prey then Harry?"

Knowing when to admit defeat, Harry sighed. "Yes, Zordon, that would be very helpful. Thank you."

Giving out a soft hurr of contentment, Hedwig went back to preening his hair. Once Zordon assured Harry that the proper documentation would be acquired, read forged and backed up with a hacked paper trail, and gotten to him as soon as possible, Harry teleported away from the Command Center in a pillar of purple light. Hedwig wasn't too fond of apparating and Harry didn't want to risk setting her off just now.

-MR-

It was a rather interesting experience traveling to the Youth Center with a snowy owl on your shoulder. Harry had teleported to a secluded alleyway nearby, one that he had previously charmed with a runically powered notice-me-not ward that would give him and the other Rangers a place to teleport to and from to avoid detection so long as the runes were recharged once a week or so. Upon leaving the alley with Hedwig riding his shoulder and preening his hair, Harry found himself the immediate center of attention.

It shouldn't have been entirely unexpected, but Harry was still caught off guard since the only real time he had spent with Hedwig in the open in the past had been in the Wizarding world, wherein such things were rather commonplace.

For her part, Hedwig was happy as could be. She just sat there pleasantly, running her beak through his hair and occasionally turning to watch some of the pedestrians passing them on the sidewalk.

"You know, Hedwig," Harry mumbled as he watched yet another person stop walking and follow him with their eyes as he and Hedwig traveled toward the Youth Center. He was starting to regret not picking an alleyway closer to the place for his teleportation point. "Perhaps you should have taken off and flown yourself to the Youth Center instead of riding my shoulder."

Hedwig gave a mental scoff. – _Nonsense, Harry/Wizard. I already told you that I cannot protect you if I do not stay with you, and there is no reason for me to fly overhead if I can just ride your shoulder._ -

"Why do I get the feeling that you're punishing me for leaving you in the Command Center so much…"

Hedwig leaned down to meet his eyes again, drawing a gasp from a nearby watcher who no doubt assumed the owl was going to savage his face. – _Why Harry/Wizard, why would I do a thing like that? After all we have been through together, both in this world and in our last, why would I do something to punish you for leaving me behind? For leaving me in the sky-wall room with the Big Head and the Metal Man that I cannot communicate with?_ -

Harry winced. "Alright, point taken. Sorry, Hedwig."

Hedwig snuffled softly before going back to his hair just as Harry turned onto the block where the Youth Center was located.

When Harry finally got inside the building and away from the confused and watching eyes of the street walking pedestrians, it took him several moments to realize that he was now in an enclosed area with several people who could stare at him for longer as they weren't trying to go anywhere. Of course this didn't occur to him until he walked up to Ernie to check in for his shift with Hedwig still perched on his shoulder.

"Uh… Harry…?" Ernie stammered, wide eyed and staring at Harry's Familiar. "Why… why is there an owl on your shoulder?"

"Oh…" Harry froze for a moment. He couldn't exactly tell Ernie that the owl told him that she was going with him and cut off any protest he could make.

Luckily enough, Ernie spoke again. "No, better question. Why do you even have an owl?"

This, Harry felt he could answer with a partial truth. "Well, I've had Hedwig here ever since my eleventh birthday, a present from an old friend of my parents actually. She's very well behaved for any kind of a pet and seemed bound and determined to come with me today. I think she's been feeling a bit neglected with my recent schedule…"

Ernie shifted his gaze to stare into Harry's eyes, as if weighing his truthfulness before nodding cautiously. "Alright… I suppose she can stay then… But any messes she makes or trouble she causes is on your head, got it?"

Nodding, Harry responded immediately. "Yes, sir. Thanks, Ernie." He felt it might be a bit odd for the owner of the Youth Center to have no large concerns about a potentially dangerous predatory bird hanging around the place, but he had long since learned not to think too hard on Ernie's eccentricities.

Waving him off, Ernie turned back to the grill behind the counter. Harry lifted an arm and let Hedwig step onto it before giving her a slight boost into the air. Hedwig pumped her wings a few times for extra altitude then landed on a rafter overhead and settled down to watch over Harry while he started his shift.

With Hedwig out of most people's immediate line of sight, though a few who had seen Harry come in with her still came up and asked about her from time to time, the first hour of his shift passed by rather quickly. Shortly into the second hour, Harry noticed the other six Rangers making their way into the Youth Center, Zack with an unusual slump to his shoulders. They cut through the mostly empty gym floor and up the few steps to the cafeteria type area around the juice bar, waving to Harry as they passed him.

After a few minutes, Ernie sent Harry on break, so he decided to check in with them. Barely noticing Hedwig gliding to his shoulder again, Harry made his way over to the table the Rangers had claimed and took the only remaining seat between Trini and Zack. "So, how're things going?"

Zack just groaned and everyone shot him a sympathetic look. At Harry's questioning expression, Billy spoke up from Zack's other side. "Zack is experiencing a transient deficiency in self-esteem in regard to the dancing contest tomorrow."

A few moments later, Trini leaned toward him and whispered her Billy-ese translation. "Zack is having self-confidence issues."

"What?" Harry asked incredulously, even Hedwig appeared to be surprised. "Why? You're an awesome dancer, Zack."

"It's just, I don't know man." Zack mumbled, frowning. "I don't know if I can cut it…"

Hedwig shuffled slightly before hopping the short distance between Harry and Zack's shoulders and butted her head up against Zack's. The Black Ranger jumped at first before relaxing when he realized who and what it was and giving the owl a scratch in thanks.

"Uh, Harry…" Kimberly said quietly, seated on Trini's other side between her and Tommy. "Why exactly is Hedwig here? I thought she was staying in the Command Center…"

Harry rolled his eyes, careful to keep them facing away from Hedwig so she wouldn't see. "Hedwig decided that she didn't want to stay in the Command Center any longer. She's getting bored there and Zordon and Alpha can't really communicate with her well. Plus she feels like she has to always protect me and she can't do that from the Command Center unless I morph."

Hedwig spun her head around to face Harry. – _It is not just a feeling, Harry/Wizard, it is a fact! You ALWAYS get into trouble when I am not around to save you. You even get into trouble when I am around to help you. You are entirely too prone to troubles for my liking!_ -

Luckily, Harry didn't have to comment on Hedwig's statement as Jason spoke up next. "Isn't this kinda dangerous though?" he asked, a skeptical look on his face. "I mean, as far as anyone knows, she's a regular owl, and those aren't exactly normal pets that would be welcomed by everyone. What if someone calls the police or something?"

Harry just shrugged. "It's not like she really is a regular owl. She won't cause anyone undue harm and will most likely stay up in the rafters most of the time. She just wants to be nearby just in case. Overprotective and all that. And if someone with authority comes by, Zordon is working on getting me the proper paperwork to own and train an owl like Hedwig and Ernie is alright with her being here as long as she doesn't cause trouble. If worst comes to worst, I can always magic my way through things to keep people from getting too suspicious."

A frown immediately fell across Jason's face. "We don't use our powers against innocents."

Harry sighed slightly. "And my magic has been with me long before I gained access to the Power, so any rules that apply to the Power don't necessarily apply to my magic. I won't do anything excessive, just a Confundus charm to make them think I already showed them the proper licenses or something. But knowing Zordon and Alpha, that won't even be an issue since I'll probably have the proper paperwork long before they become necessary. There shouldn't be any trouble."

Almost as if summoned by his words, trouble appeared in the form of Bulk and Skull. "Hey, nerds!"

"Yeah, nerds!"

Skull's high pitched laughter grated on Harry's nerves as the two bullies approached the Rangers' table. "So… Zack!" Bulk said with a sneer. "Are you ready for the dance competition tomorrow? Cuz it doesn't matter how good you think you are, I'm gonna be blowing everyone else out of the water."

"I doubt there's going to be a biggest splash off a high-dive portion of a dancing contest, Bulk, but good positive thinking." Harry drawled, bringing Bulk's angry glare off of Zack and toward him, only to pause partway when he caught sight of Hedwig still perched on Zack's shoulder.

"What's this? Some kind of stupid fake bird?" Bulk demanded as he moved around the table to stand behind Zack who was forced to turn to face him. Hedwig's head turned as Zack moved, keeping her steely yellow gaze on Bulk. "Do you think this thing is going to bring you some kind of good luck? Or is it your dance partner?"

As Skull once more started laughing at Bulk's questionable wit, the larger bully started reaching forward to grab Hedwig. Seeing him move, Harry decided to intervene. "I wouldn't do that if I were you, Bulk."

Bulk froze with his hands a mere foot from Hedwig while the owl just stared at him. "Oh yeah," he demanded. "And why's that?"

In response, Harry just whistled and held up his left arm near Zack's shoulder. Hedwig hopped forward onto Harry's proffered arm as he brought it back to his chest. She leaned into him and let out noises of contentment, her eyes closing slowly even as she spun her head around nearly 180 degrees to still face the two teens.

Bulk jerked himself back. "That thing is alive!" He near shouted, bringing the attention of everyone else in the Youth Center to them with the few who had seen the entire exchange quickly explaining it to others in hissing whispers.

Harry rolled his eyes. "Yes, Bulk. She is both alive and a real Snowy Owl. Her name is Hedwig and I've had her since I was eleven. She didn't seem to want to stay home today, so I brought her along."

Bulk shook the fear off his face and sneered at Harry. "I wonder what Ernie will have to say about your little pet chicken."

Harry scoffed even as Hedwig stiffened at Bulk's insult. He had to mentally remind her that she wasn't supposed to be anything more than a regular animal who wouldn't understand the idiot's taunt and so she couldn't respond as she wanted to. "Why don't you go ask him yourself? I already cleared it with him. Do you think I'd be that stupid, Bulk? Really?"

"Why don't you just leave us alone, Bulk? Maybe before you embarrass yourself more than you already have." Tommy said, standing from his seat slowly, a move Jason copied somewhat hesitantly.

Seeing a situation he was more familiar with, that of apparently physical opposition as opposed to anything involving a bird of prey, Bulk straightened up and once more fixed his sights on Zack. "No, I don't think I will. Before the stupid bird distracted me, I was coming over here to give little Zacky a taste of what he's in for tomorrow night! How about it, loser. Let's have a little dance off right now!"

Zack faltered slightly until Jason smiled and chuckled a bit. "Go ahead man, maybe whooping Bulk at his own challenge will be just what you need to get your confidence back."

Seeing the other Rangers all smiling and nodding at him, Zack finally agreed and the team was treated with an exposition of skill on Zack's part while Bulk merely attempted to copy what he had done. Very, very poorly.

When Zack started off with a few quick steps and a spinning high kick from his Hip Hop Kido style, Bulk copied by jiggling himself around and barely getting his toes above waist level. When Zack did a few more dance moves followed by a five foot vertical jump and midair split, Bulk spun his arms a bit and hopped maybe six inches up and turned his toes outward. Finally, Zack started dancing once more, working his way back until he had enough room around him and jumping into the air with his arms out straight, completing two full spins before landing in a fighting crouch. This time, Bulk just backed up too far and when he jumped ended up knocking down Skull along with a bunch of foam columns that Ernie had planned to use for part of the decorations for the contest the next day.

The Rangers all laughed and congratulated Zack on his win, but Zack just waved them off. "No guys, he just tripped himself up… just like I'm gonna do at the contest…"

With that, Zack walked off without another word, leaving the rest of the Rangers speechless in his wake. Finally, Harry spoke up again. "Man… he really is having self-esteem problems. If I had half the moves he does I wouldn't have any worries at all!"

Jason seemed to catch onto Harry's words as he spoke up next. "Speaking of your moves, Harry, I didn't see you in Karate Class this morning."

Harry stiffened slightly before turning to face the Red Ranger across the table. Jason had a stern look on his face, almost as if he thought he could intimidate Harry with his look alone. Harry easily brushed it off before responding. "Something else came up that I wanted to get taken care of. I needed a bit of a break anyway, Jason. Don't worry about it."

Jason face started turning as red as his suit. "What do you mean you need a break? Is the whole thing some kind of game to you? This is serious business here, Harry. You have to learn to defend yourself properly."

Closing his eyes briefly and counting from ten in his mind, helped by a few soothing words from Hedwig, Harry restrained his anger before meeting Jason's gaze. "I agree completely, Jason. It is serious business. And I also don't think this is a conversation that you would want to have in the middle of the Youth Center."

The other Rangers were beginning to clue in on what was happening at their table right in front of them and were looking uneasy, but Jason thundered on with a scowl. "I think this is as good of a place as any. Why don't you tell me what's on your mind, Harry." Though his words were at least passably pleasant, Jason's tone of voice showed that the Red Ranger's own temper was building.

"Alright then," Harry mused before shifting Hedwig back to his shoulder. "Why have you been holding me back and calling me out over nothing in class?"

Jason's scowl deepened. "I don't know what you're talking about."

Even Harry could tell that his response had been a little too quick. Fearing where this conversation would go now, Harry cast a wandless notice-me-not charm and silencing charm around their table, just in case. "Come on Jason, don't play the fool here. Even I know that I'm performing the katas as well as or in some cases even better than some students who have been at this for months longer than I have. I know for a fact that several of the other students are wondering why you're treating me the way you are. You're constantly calling me up to the front of the class and nitpicking on the smallest of issues. And when I spend the time between classes fixing the issues with help from the others, you find something else to pick on. And as soon as there's nothing else you can think of to pick on, you go back to the first thing."

"I most certainly do not!" Jason near shouted, half rising from his seat before Tommy placed a hand on his forearm to calm him down. The Green Ranger wore a serious expression on his face, but didn't look like he was going to step in and stop this argument in the making. He and the other Rangers knew that this was a long time in coming.

Harry just sighed. "Jason, in one of my first classes you hit on my poor footwork in the first Kata you taught me. I fixed that within the next week and you moved on to my blocks and ready stance. Then, two weeks after that, you hit on my footwork again, though nobody could really identify what I had done wrong no matter who I asked for help, and that includes those sitting at this table. So if you aren't singling me out, why don't you tell me what's going on?"

Jason opened and closed his mouth a few times and glanced at the others at the table before finally finding his voice. He spoke in a slightly quieter tone now, though his eyes still held the same firmness. "Alright, I'll admit that I'm holding you to a bit of a higher standard because you're a Ranger too, but I'm not picking on you. Everything I've pointed out has been a valid issue that you needed to fix."

Harry nodded somewhat reluctantly. "Fair enough, but that really doesn't explain why I'm still being instructed to focus on the first Kata instead of moving on to the more advanced ones? Why am I still a white belt when others who have admitted that they know they aren't doing as well as I am have been promoted? Why are you trying so hard to keep me down if you're only trying to help me better myself and my fighting skills while in uniform?"

When Jason didn't respond, Harry soldiered on. "Look Jason, you and I both know that you've had a problem with me almost from the beginning. I'm pretty sure I know what your issue is, but it doesn't matter much at this point. Fact is, you're conduct is bordering on unprofessional. I've even overheard a few students who are thinking of dropping out of your class if it doesn't stop. If enough people leave, it could result in you getting investigated and losing your certifications as a Karate Instructor."

When Harry paused, Jason just grit his teeth and said nothing. Sighing, Harry continued. "Look, I don't want that to happen to you, but you have to realize what's going on. You're letting your personal feelings interfere with your teaching, and that's not good. I just decided I would remove myself from the equation and see how things went."

Jason finally spoke again, though he met the eyes of everyone at the table but Harry as he did so. "And you all agree with this? With what he's saying? That I'm going too far?"

The other Rangers looked very uncomfortable with the situation, but Tommy eventually spoke. "It's true, man. You aren't the only one here qualified to teach Karate, and I've seen a few of your classes and talked to some of your students. You're a great teacher, but your professionalism when Harry is involved leaves something to be desired."

Jason's face started going red again. "So he's turned you all against me then…"

Harry growled lightly under his breath. "This isn't a case of you against me, Jason. The only teams here are the Power Rangers and Earth against Rita and her forces. We. Are. On. The. Same. Side. I know you don't like me personally, but when I agreed to join your class it was in the interest of learning to better help our side against Rita."

"And I told you I wouldn't give you any special treatment!"

"But you have been, Jason!" Harry interrupted the Red Ranger's tirade, his green eyes blazing with his internal Power as his temper rose nearer and nearer the surface. "The only difference is that you haven't been doing it in a positive fashion. You've been passive aggressively putting me down and singling me out since almost the first class I was in! Your determination to establish your dominance over me in the class since you don't feel you can on the Ranger team took you outside the realm of what is acceptable in terms of how you treat your students. And it's starting to have an effect on others as they take notice of what's going on too."

Kimberly sighed as she looked between the two arguing teens before placing a calming hand on Jason's arm. The Red Ranger turned his head sharply to face her only to calm slightly at the sympathetic look on her face. "Jason… I've heard the rumors Harry is talking about too. A few kids were mentioning how some of your students are getting a little uncomfortable with the way you've been calling Harry out. With the way you haven't given him proper acknowledgement for his successes and the like."

With his anger fading fast, Jason looked around at the rest of his friends, Kimberly and Tommy had already expressed their opinions, but when he saw the matching sad, sympathetic looks on Billy and Trini's faces, he just collapsed into himself as the reality of his situation and what he could lose finally sunk in. "So what do you guys think we should do…?"

Harry sighed, letting his own temper die down before speaking. "I think I'm going to drop out of your classes, Jason. I don't want to cause any more trouble than I already have and the easiest way to avoid that is to remove myself from that equation."

Jason's head snapped back up. "But how will you learn to defend yourself?"

Harry shook his head slowly, mindful of the owl still on his shoulder. "I'll figure something out, but for now I think this is the best option."

The two held each other's gaze for several seconds before Jason finally nodded, letting out a sigh of his own. "You're right… I'm just sorry it got this far… I'll… I'll work on it…"

Harry smiled easily before glancing at the clock and seeing his break was a bit past over. Standing from the table and taking Hedwig back onto his arm he nodded at each of the Rangers. "No worries, Jason. We're teenagers after all, angst and emotional outbursts are what we do."

With a small, rather forced sounding chuckle, Jason nodded back to Harry as he sent Hedwig back into the rafters, cancelled his spells, and went back to work.

-MR-

The next hour passed fairly quickly for Harry. He was feeling a bit lighter about himself after clearing the air with Jason about the Karate Classes and let himself revel in his newfound freedom. He made a concerted effort to not let himself worry about how he was going to continue learning without Jason as a teacher, deciding such things could be researched later. He would just have to make do with what he already knew and his magic for now.

Further musings on the subject were cut off when the very earth began to shake violently. It started with a tremendous crack of thunder that partially deafened him. Hedwig let out a screech as the noise disoriented her, nearly causing her to fall from her perch in the process. When the ground started shaking, most of the people in the Youth Center started panicking and running for the exits.

While most people would seek out doorways and the like in an earthquake, in Angel Grove things were different. It hadn't taken the citizens long to recognize that what felt like an earthquake was much more likely to be the footsteps of a giant monster and being indoors when the building could be collapsed on top of you by a giant hand or foot wasn't the best idea.

As Ernie ran out from behind the counter with a shout of "I hate it when this happens," Harry stumbled across the unstable ground to the cluster of other Rangers, sans Zack who was still off on his own.

"Harry," Trini near shouted, gripping onto his right arm with both of hers in an attempt to stabilize herself. "Do you know what's going on? Can you sense anything?"

Harry shook his head briefly before realizing that as much as everything else was shaking, it was probably difficult to recognize his gesture. "No, we can assume that Rita is causing it because of the thunder clap before the shaking if nothing else, but I can't sense anything specific."

"Zordon!" Jason called into his communicator, prompting Harry to glance around briefly and see that they were there was nobody else near enough to hear them as most everyone had already left. "Something is going on in Angel Grove!"

"Yes, Jason, I know." Zordon's voice echoed back. "I am detecting unusual power surges from Rita's moon base. The energy is more massive than I have sensed in a long time. If she is doing what I fear, then the entire earth is in grave danger."

"Alright, Zordon." Jason said quickly. "We have to find Zack, but as soon as we do, we'll come to the Command Center."

"Hurry, Jason. We may not have much time. I shall attempt to locate Zackary myself and I will contact you if I am successful." With that, Zordon closed the communication link and Jason looked back up at the others.

"Come on guys," he said firmly. "Let's go find Zack."

Nodding, Harry and the other Rangers followed Jason toward the exit of the Youth Center, only to be stalled by a cry for help from a pair of children wearing Karate Gi and hiding under a table.

"Tommy!" one of them shouted upon catching sight of the Rangers, particularly the Green. "Tommy, what's going on?"

Tommy cursed lightly under his breath before turning to the others. "I can't leave my students here, guys. You go on ahead, I'll catch up later."

Jason nodded. "Alright, Tommy. We'll see you later then."

As Tommy ran back across the room to the two boys and the other Rangers started on their way out of the building to try and locate Zack, Harry was struck with the thought that he hadn't known Tommy even had any students…

-MR-

It only took a few minutes to find a location private enough for Harry to cast a tracking charm to locate Zack. When they found him on the outskirts of the park around ten minutes later, the shaking in the ground had either stopped or they had traveled far enough from the epicenter that they couldn't feel it anymore. Zack's lack of concern when they came upon him suggested the latter.

"Zack!" Kimberly shouted, having taken the lead and spotted him first. "There you are! We've been looking for you."

Zack still looked rather upset, but Jason picked up the thread of conversation. "Bad news bud, Rita is up to something."

"Zordon said she's gathering Power for something big!" Trini continued.

Nodding, Zack stood from the bench he had been sitting on. "So we're going to the Command Center?"

With a nod of his own, Jason brought his communicator up. "Right. Let's go guys.

Now that they were outside, Harry could more easily feel the massive Power buildup that Zordon had mentioned. Just before they vanished in their uniquely colored columns of light, Harry couldn't help but feel a hint of dread. Just what was Rita planning now?

-MR-

Zordon wasted no time in speaking once they arrived. "Welcome, Rangers. It is as I feared. Rita has finished gathering her Power and cast a summoning spell to call forth one of her most deadly servants. Behold the Viewing Globe."

As one, the six Rangers turned to the Globe as it lit up from within to show a zombie like monster with bone-colored plates on its torso and arms as a sort of armor. The monster was a red, fleshy color and had two large bolts coming out from the sides of its head. "This is the monster known as Mutitus. It is an undead warrior of great strength that has served Rita in many battles in the past and always brought her victory. If she is calling this monster forward now, it is because she is running out of options, but the worst is yet to come."

Kimberly groaned. "I really don't want to know how something can be worse than that thing. Ugh… Gross me out…"

Harry stifled a chuckle at Kimberly's comment, though not enough to keep Hedwig from hearing him from her perch on his shoulder and cuffing him lightly with her wing. – _Be serious Harry/Wizard._ -

Harry gave Hedwig a quick scratch in apology as the image in the globe changed again, this time to show what was essentially a large, blue head with insanely spiky hair. Zack snorted briefly. "Friend of yours, Zordon?"

Not wanting to raise Hedwig's ire again, Harry more successfully hid his amusement as Zordon responded. "Unfortunately not, Zackary. This is the spirit warrior Lokar. He is a former wielder of the Power like Harry and myself who fell afoul of his own dark magics. As a result, he is trapped in a limbo dimension and only allowed escape when summoned by another. In this case, Rita called him forth to fight alongside Mutitus to destroy the Earth."

"So we've got a zombie and a super-wizard. Sounds like another day in the life of the Power Rangers." Zack quipped, his good humor seemingly restored, though it also felt a bit forced, as if he was pushing his own problems and concerns aside for the sake of the mission.

"This will be your most difficult battle yet, Rangers. Fight hard, work together, and may the Power protect you."

"We will, Zordon," Jason nodded, prompting the others to do so as well before everyone pulled out their morphers and Harry drew his wand. "Alright guys, Its Morphin' Time!"

-MR-

AN: Looked up the price of Gold on November 13th, 1993. I Got $376.75 for the 12th, the 13th wasn't shown as it was a Saturday. Thus my calculations earlier in the chapter.

Thanks for reading and don't forget to review,

Tenstar12


	25. Chapter 25

Magi Ranger

By: Tenstar12

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or Power Rangers.

 **Chapter 25, in Which Harry Averts One Potential Disaster, but is Unable to Stop Another…**

It took next to no time for things to get especially crazy after the Rangers morphed and teleported to Angel Grove proper.

Upon materializing, they all noticed the giant form of Mutitus stomping around between the buildings of the city a few blocks away. Even worse, the monster immediately noticed them as well.

So distracted were the Rangers by the proximity of the monster and the fact that it was already grown and was now approaching them, Harry was the only one who noticed the girl frozen in fright right in the monster's path and about to get stomped on.

"Harry! Where are you going?" Trini yelled as Harry sprinted forward and away from the others, summoning his staff as he went and jabbing it in front of him.

" _Accio!_ " Harry near screamed, his magic reacting as expected and latching onto the now screaming girl, pulling her back mere moments before the giant monster's foot crashed down where she had been standing. The only problem was that the shockwave produced by the monster's step knocked the girl out of the fragile hold of Harry's spell and sent her sprawling to the blacktop.

The girl's scream of fright abruptly cut off when she hit the ground, only to be replaced by cries of pain as she cradled one of her knees to her chest. Harry continued in his dead sprint, internally grateful at the increased stamina and speed granted by his Morph. He noticed briefly that Mutitus had now spotted the girl, and Harry's approach as a result, and seemed as if it was preparing to stomp on the girl deliberately this time.

Seeing that he wouldn't reach her in time at this rate, Harry spun his staff around him as he ran, gathering his Power for a desperate move. When Mutitus's foot was a mere ten feet over the injured civilian's body, Harry released a concentrated Forcewave. The burst of purple energy smashed into the bottom of the monster's foot and halted its momentum, if only barely. This brief pause gave Harry enough time to scoop up the girl and dash out from under the giant foot mere moments before it crashed down once again.

Without pausing to think, Harry jumped into the air while holding the girl, twisting them in midair and vanishing with a sharp crack only to reappear back with the other Rangers who had yet to react in their shock.

The girl's sobs began anew, though she now looked a bit queasy on top of her scraped and bloody right knee that she was still clutching.

"Ha- uh… Magi! Are you alright?" Billy asked, moving up to cast a wary eye over the injured girl and the Magi Ranger.

"Yeah, that was a close one, dude." Zack followed up as Trini knelt down next to the girl when Harry moved to set her on the blacktop. When the girl refused to remove her arm from around his neck, Harry was forced to stay crouched next to her while Trini gave her a quick once over.

"Her knee is pretty badly scraped, but it doesn't look too serious." Trini said moments later. "You should be able to fix her up fairly quickly if I remember what you told us about your magic right."

Before Harry could use said magic, Jason interrupted them. "We don't have a lot of time now. Magi, you take the girl somewhere safe and then come back to help us. We'll summon the Zords and try to take this guy down."

Harry glanced down the road to see Mutitus was still standing where he had been before Harry apparated away, glaring at them with his hideous visage. "I don't know, Red." Harry said after a moment, only momentarily pausing to keep himself from using the Ranger's actual name. "This doesn't feel right. He's just standing there…"

Jason nodded while the others shifted their gazes up toward the monster. "I know. It has to be a trap, but we don't have much choice but to meet him on even ground, even if we are playing right into Rita's hands. Just hurry up and get back to us as soon as you can."

Harry nodded. "Right, I'll get her away from here and fixed up before I start back. Hopefully it won't take too long."

"Alright, let's do it guys." Jason glanced at each of the other four core Rangers before nodding as they moved to stand in line with him, with only brief hesitation on Trini's part before she stood after patting the somewhat calmer girl on the shoulder reassuringly. "We need Dinozord Power, NOW!"

Mere moments later, as the five color coded robot dinosaurs made their appearances, the five Rangers leapt into the air and landed atop their Zords. Shaking himself slightly, Harry once more stood, lifting the girl as he did so. "Alright little missy, let's get ourselves out of here before the Megazord starts in on our big ugly friend over there, yeah?"

The girl squeaked slightly, as if surprised at being addressed directly, before nodding and tightening her grip around Harry's neck with her left arm while her right stayed wrapped around her injured leg. It was a bit of a difficult position to carry someone in seeing as her weight was more than a bit uneven, but with the added strength from his suit, Harry was able to solider on as he ducked into an alleyway and sprinted through, doing the best he could to avoid jostling her too much, and then down the next street over.

As he ran, Harry idly studied the girl clinging to him so tightly. At first glance, Harry guessed her to be twelve or so. She was wearing a white dress of some kind with floral patterns stitched into it and had her shoulder length hair swinging freely. At present, her face was streaked with dirt and tears, but he imagined that she was a rather cute kid when she hadn't just been crying after nearly getting turned into a pancake.

Turning into another alleyway and cutting across to yet another street, Harry spotted a sort of garden plaza complete with a fountain surrounded by wooden benches in front of a building labeled as the Angel Grove Center for the Arts. Deciding that the relatively open garden area was as good a place as any to try and fix the girl up, Harry ran over to it and set her down on a bench.

"Now, hold still. This may sting a bit, but you'll feel better afterwards, alright?" When the girl gave him a wide eyed nod a few moments later, Harry waved his staff over her injured leg, casting both a cleaning charm to remove the dirt and whatnot from the injury and a minor healing charm. In a few seconds, the girl's knee was fully healed and she was staring up at him in wonder.

Harry shuffled uneasily. "There you go. Good as new."

"Wow…" The girl finally spoke breathily. "I can't believe I was actually saved by a Power Ranger! Are you the Purple Ranger? I know all the others go by their colors, but you have so many that nobody has been able to figure it out!"

The girl spoke very fast, reminding Harry idly of an eleven year old Hermione back on the Hogwarts Express. He chuckled briefly before bowing slightly to the now excited child. "I am the Magi Ranger. I'm an ally of the Power Rangers who has joined in their battle against Rita's forces."

"Magi Ranger? Does that mean magic? Is that how you fixed my leg? With magic?" The girl was getting visibly excited now, her former queasiness from the apparition either passed or forgotten. "Were you a bad guy like the Green Ranger was? Did the other Power Rangers beat you up until you got good again? That's what my mommy said happened to the Green Ranger."

Harry rolled his eyes behind his helmet as the girl's rapid fire questions kept coming. She was sounding more and more like Hermione every moment. "Yes, I used magic to fix your leg. No, I wasn't a bad guy like Green was. I helped the other Rangers fight Green until we were able to break the spell Rita had on him. That was before I got my actual Ranger suit though."

The Girl's eyes somehow grew wider than they had before. "Are you the guy in the cloak that the fat idiot and the skinny idiot were talking about on the news?"

When Harry simply stared at her, his mind processing her comment, the girl wilted slightly and drew in upon herself. "That's what Mommy and Daddy called them when they saw them on television…"

Harry broke his silence with a chuckle. It seemed that even complete strangers were able to figure out Bulk and Skull after a single interaction, even if it was only one way and over the television. "Yeah, that was me and while what your parents said may be true, it's still not very nice to call people names."

"And it's not very smart to get so wrapped up in your fans that you don't pay attention to your surroundings, Mageling."

Harry spun around, moving from a full crouch into a fighting stance with the Magi Staff held defensively as he stood to face Goldar and the group of a half dozen Super Putties with him. Internally, Harry cursed himself. Goldar was right about one thing, he had gotten a bit wrapped up in his conversation with the girl. All the same he felt his Gryffindor courage and his saving people thing rising within him, all but demanding he step up and respond to the taunt. "What are you doing here, Goldar?"

Alright, so he was still working on the witty banter part of the superhero gig. In his defense, the other Rangers weren't too good at it either.

Goldar merely laughed. "Empress Rita noticed that you weren't with the other Rangers anymore and felt you may be a bit lonely, so she decided to send you someone to keep you company."

"And of course you felt that you couldn't possibly come alone, am I right?"

Goldar threw his head back and laughed harder still. "I shall enjoy this fight, Mageling. We have yet to truly cross weapons since you acquired your new Power. I will greatly enjoy crushing your hopes, and your skull, personally."

Harry glanced back over his shoulder where the girl was still on the bench, though now she had curled herself up to be as small as possible and was barely peaking around his side to catch a glimpse of the monster and putties before them. "Hey, kid…"

"My name is Marie!" the girl, Marie apparently, snapped before instantly covering her mouth with both hands and going pale.

"Marie then," Harry continued as calmly as possible, still keeping most of his attention on the now slowly advancing putties and stationary Goldar. "I'm going to have to fight these guys. When I charge in, I want you to run the other way and head inside the building behind us, alright? You should be safe there. I'll come and get you once I'm finished with these clowns."

Marie nodded frantically, now reminding Harry of Dobby as her hair flopped around similar to how the elf's ears would. He was certainly reminiscing a lot today… "Alright Mr. Magi Ranger, sir." Not waiting for his signal, the girl immediately jumped off the bench and started running, drawing the attention of a few of the putties.

With a growl, Harry jabbed his staff toward the closest one. " _Reducto_!" The red bolt of magic lanced forth, smashing into the chest of the putty and causing a small explosion that sent it flying backwards with a sizable crater in its chest. "Over here, numbskulls. Your fight is with me."

Having successfully gotten the putties attention, Harry drew up the Power within him, letting it flow freely through his body. He knew that he wasn't a great fighter still, but with the help of the Power, he should be able to at least handle a few putties.

While the silver runes on his suit began to glow brighter in response to the Power, the putties charged in, their overly large hands reaching out to grasp at him. Just as the first one got within striking distance, Harry moved, swiftly bringing his staff around and slamming it into the construct's side, just under its arm.

When that putty went flying to the side in a shower of sparks, it left room for the next one to move in and catch Harry out of position with the large heavy ball it had shifted its right hand into. Harry felt the impact of the putty's weapon solidly in his right shoulder. He stumbled slightly, but the hit wasn't enough to completely knock him off balance. Instead, he jabbed the offending putty with the butt end of the Magi Staff, catching it in the side of its knee and dropping it to the ground as its leg gave out.

The next two putties came at him with their hands shifted into swords, forcing Harry to backpedal as they double-teamed him. This lasted long enough for the three putties he had already downed to get back to their feet, though the one with the cratered chest was noticeably slower to do so than the others.

"You see, Mageling?" Goldar taunted. "You can't even handle a few Putty Patrollers! How do you intend to stand up to me?"

Harry growled slightly before gathering his power with a quick spin of his staff. "I'm only just getting started, Goldar. You haven't seen the barest hint of what I can do!" With a sharp cry, Harry thrust his staff into the chest of the nearest putty, the resulting impact releasing the built up magic in his weapon to blast apart that putty and knock the other five to the ground.

Moving as quickly as he could, Harry drew more heavily on his connection to the Grid, gathering more and more Power into his weapon while the putties recovered and Goldar stalked closer.

"You know," Goldar began again. "For someone trained by Zordon, you don't really show any of his better traits. I fought against him back before my Empress's imprisonment, you know. He was a mighty warrior and a mighty wizard. You are neither." Goldar pointed at Harry as he snarled dramatically.

Harry just rolled his eyes and continued gathering Power. He was planning something more than a little over the top, but he really wasn't trained for fighting crowds just yet. He needed to even the odds a bit.

"It is truly a disappointment that the first true apprentice the old wizard takes in ten thousand years turns out to be as big of a waste of Power as you are, Mageling." The monster continued with a scoff as the broken apart pieces of the putty Harry had blasted began reforming into two new putties. "He certainly wouldn't have made the mistake of letting one of these Super Putties reform while he was showboating."

Harry smiled under his helmet as he finally felt the gathered Power reach the level he needed. "And that's the difference between us Goldar. Zordon was all finesse and control back in the day. I don't have the training for that quite yet. But I do have a certain fondness for overkill from time to time that tends to come in rather handy. Now let's see how you stand up to this!" With a furious cry, Harry thrust his now glowing staff straight up, rather dramatically he felt, and released the gathered energy in the form of a bolt of purple tinted lightning that shot straight up into the air for about twenty feet before arcing back down and splitting into eight different bolts, one for each putty and Goldar.

Goldar, seeing what was about to happen, managed to leap back out of the way, leaving the now seven Super Putties behind to get struck by Harry's lightning spell, turning them to little more than ash by the time the energy was expended. "HA!" Harry panted lightly, bringing his staff back down to his side and taking a fighting stance. "Let's see them regenerate from that!"

"Well played, Mageling," Goldar drawled as he started forward again, paying no mind to the putty-ash swirling around his feet as he walked through it. "It seems I'm always underestimating you, no matter how many times we meet. No matter. Perhaps it's even better this way. Now we will face each other one on one!"

With a roar of fury, Goldar charged through the last dozen feet between them, swinging his sword diagonally downward at Harry, only for the Ranger to block it with his upraised staff. Goldar merely sneered though before almost negligently kicking Harry back and breaking their weapon lock by consequence. Harry went flying backward, crashing into and through the wooden bench Marie had been on earlier, and finally skidding to a halt a few feet from the edge of the fountain.

"Even as a Power Ranger you still cannot stand against me, Mageling!" Goldar taunted as he made his way slowly toward Harry's downed form.

Grunting, Harry pushed himself up from his prone position before standing slowly, leaning heavily on his staff. "There's just one thing you're overlooking here, Goldar."

The monster paused for a moment before snarling. "And what might that be, little Ranger?"

Harry steadied himself before pointing his staff toward Goldar. "I always managed to beat you before I gained this fancy suit. The only difference between now and then is that I've gotten a little Karate training. Be that as it may, my strong suit… is still in my magic! _Reducto_!"

With Goldar standing so close, he had little to no time to avoid Harry's sudden spell. Honed battle instincts managed to allow him to shift just enough to avoid getting hit in his torso, but the solid impact and follow up rain of sparks from his shoulder still managed to twist him enough that he tripped over his own entwined legs, falling facedown and facing away from Harry.

The Magi Ranger acted quickly, leaping backwards in the same kind of dramatic jump that he had seen the other Rangers do so often, raining down destructive spells and Grid Powered Fireballs as he went.

He hadn't though too far ahead though. Because this was really his first time doing a super jump like this, let alone going backwards, so when his feet met the ground again he wasn't fully prepared. The end result of this was that Harry stumbled to the ground and went rolling head over foot until he finally hit the front wall of the theater building.

Harry groaned as he tried to rise, finding himself remarkably unsteady as he did so. It took him a few moments to realize that he wasn't all that unsteady personally, the ground was just shaking. From a position on his knees, Harry looked up toward the roofline of the buildings across from him and caught sight of the massive forms of Mutitus and the Megazord locked in a grapple as they stumbled around, causing a minor earthquake with each heavy footfall.

Cursing slightly, Harry forced himself back to his feet, still disoriented enough from his tumble to have to rest most of his weight on the Magi Staff as he stood. Upon reaching his feet, Harry looked up in time to see Goldar once more charging toward him with his sword held in front. "MAGELING!" The intimidation factor Goldar held was only slightly tarnished by the scorch marks dotting his armor from Harry's spells, not to mention the darker patch of skin on the side of his blue face that showed some actual damage done despite the monster's full body armor. All the same, Harry found himself quite unable to defend himself as Goldar approached.

It turned out to be unnecessary, however, as Goldar's charge was interrupted by both a fierce battle cry and a solid flying kick to the head. "Aiyah! Si-Aiyah!" Tommy's white-booted foot impacted solidly with Goldar's face and easily knocked the monster to the side, sending his sword skidding along the ground with him as he rolled away while Tommy landed on the ground in a half-crouch before running to Harry's side. "Harry!" Tommy near shouted, placing a supporting hand on his shoulder. "Are you alright? Zordon said you might need some help before we go back up the others."

Harry nodded. "Yeah, yeah I'm good…"

Further comment was cut off by an unexpected source. "WOW! Another Power Ranger! And it's the Green Ranger too! Hey, my mommy said the other Rangers beat you up so you'd be a good guy. Is that true?"

Marie leaned out from behind a concrete pillar supporting an overhang on the front of the theater building a mere ten feet away from the two confused Rangers. "And he called you Harry… is that your name Magi Ranger? Is that your real name?"

Tommy turned back toward Harry, most likely with a guilty look on his face under the helmet, but Harry just waved his hand airily and stumble-walked over to the girl. "Now that's supposed to be a secret, Marie." He said as he knelt next to her with a small grunt of pain.

"Then is the Green Ranger in trouble for saying it where I could hear?"

Harry shook his head but any verbal response he would have made was once more cut off, this time by an angry roar from Goldar. "You may have beaten me this time, Power Rangers," the monster shouted while struggling to his feet with the help of his sword. "But you will be unable to stand up to my mistress and her plans this time! Today marks the end of the Power Rangers, one way or the other!"

With his final taunt made, Goldar waved his free arm around before bringing it horizontally across his chest and vanishing, presumably teleported back to the moon.

Marie once more made a wide-eyed exclamation. "WOW! I can't believe I got to see the Power Rangers beat a monster in person! And I know one of your names too! I can't wait to tell all my friends!"

Harry raised an eyebrow under his helmet before waving his free hand idly. "Yeah, I'm gonna have to stop you right there. _Somnus_."

Easily catching Marie before she fully collapsed, Harry settled her down on the ground before standing once more and touching the end of the Magi Staff to her forehead. With a mumbled spell and some harsh mental focus, he cast a memory charm and then a summoning charm to bring a small, decorative stone out of one of the nearby gardens. Tapping the stone with his staff, it glowed blue briefly, and he dropped it onto Marie's stomach, at which point she vanished with a soft pop of displaced air.

"Woah…" Tommy mumbled. "What did you do?"

Harry turned back toward Tommy, still resting on his staff a bit, but glad his aches were already fading thanks to the Power flowing through him. "Sorry, Tommy. I forgot you haven't really seen me use much magic aside from combat stuff. I put her to sleep for a bit, then erased her memory of you saying my name and then made a portkey to send her to the Youth Center. I figure Ernie will be able to take care of her until she wakes up in about ten minutes or so."

"That's kinda cool, man." Tommy smiled, a slight hint of awe in his voice. "I never realized that your magic was so versatile." Tommy paused for a moment before speaking again. "You may be having some troubles with your Karate instruction, but with your magic you're still a definite asset in our fight."

Harry sighed. "Yeah, I just wish I'd remember that more often. I almost got my arse handed to me because I tried to fight Goldar and those putties up close. Thanks for the save by the way."

Tommy nodded. "Happy to help, Harry. Happy to help."

The relative silence, save for the now once more distant rumblings of the giant monster battle, was split by the six tone chime of their communicators. "Rangers, you must move quickly. The others will need the aid of the Dragonzord and Hedwig if they hope to stand a fighting chance against Mutitus."

Shaking himself briefly and inwardly cursing, Harry brought his left arm up near his mouth. "Right, Zordon. We're on our way." Glancing back up at Tommy as he lowered his arm, Harry nodded. "You ready to go face off against big and ugly?"

Tommy nodded, clenching a fist and punching it into his other hand. "Born ready. Let's do this."

Harry nodded back before passing his staff into his left hand as the two Rangers jogged out from under the overhang. While Tommy summoned the Dragon Dagger and began playing his summoning tune, Harry threw his right and into the air and released a pulse of Power. "HEDWIG!"

High above the city of Angel Grove, Hedwig appeared in her full sized Zord form in a flash of purple light, letting out a vicious screech as she began flapping her wings. – _I see the dead-thing, Harry/Wizard, and it just knocked the big robot man down._ \- Hedwig's words were punctuated by a massive, though brief, tremor that was most likely the Megazord hitting the ground. – _I am going to try to draw its attention away from the others._ -

Harry nodded, idly noting that Tommy had just performed a super jump onto one of the nearby skyscrapers. "Alright, Hedwig," Harry said, trusting in their connection and the Power to ensure she heard him. "Just be careful."

Hedwig's wordless affirmation was followed by another fierce screech before she folded her wings back and began a steep dive toward what Harry could only assume to be the monster's location. Thinking quickly and feeling rather against attempting another super jump any time soon, Harry glanced around until he spotted a balcony high up on a nearby building and used a little line-of-sight apparition to reach it. After that it only took one more quick apparition to reach the roof of another building that allowed him an easy view of the oddly large clear area between large buildings that the Megazord and Mutitus were using as a battleground.

Just as he jogged to the inside edge of the building, getting a clear view of the entire fight, Hedwig flared her wings out sharply, transferring the speed of her dive from vertical to horizontal as she raced through the air toward Mutitus while the monster towered over the downed Megazord. As Harry watched, the dome on Hedwig's head began glowing with Power before a lance of bright yellow energy shot from the plate on the right side of her head and smashed into the unsuspecting Mutitus, sending the monster stumbling back with an accompanying shower of sparks.

Hedwig fired her laser attack once more, this time knocking the monster to the ground, before she passed it, lashing out with her talons as she did and leaving a twin trail of sparks leaping up from the monster's torso. Immediately afterward, she began beating her wings to help the turbines in them restore some of her height to avoid crashing into any buildings.

"Alright!" Harry cheered from his perch. "Nice move Hedwig!"

"Harry!" Jason's voice came from Harry's communicator. "Boy are we glad to see you and Hedwig. Were you able to get the girl to safety? Any sign of Tommy?"

Jason's question was answered when Tommy's rally tune echoed across the area, followed immediately by the mechanical roar of the Dragonzord. The giant mech stomped into the area and used its tail to sweep Mutitus's legs out from under it again the instant it regained them, buying the Megazord enough time to stand once more.

Harry still smiled as he lifted his communicator arm. "I believe that answer's your second question, Jason. And yeah, I got her to safety. Portkeyed her to the Youth Center a little bit ago."

"Awesome." Jason cheered, accompanied by relieved exclamations from the others heard in the background. "Good work, Harry. Be careful with this guy though. He's a lot tougher than most of Rita's other monsters. You might want to have Hedwig stay a bit further back. She really can't take too may big hits without feeling it a lot more than our Zords. Maybe take shots when you see the chance, but try to leave most of the fighting to the Megazord and Dragonzord."

"Sounds good, Jason, you guys watch yourselves out there." Harry lowered his arm again and watched somewhat anxiously as the Zords engaged Mutitus again.

With the monster now on its feet once more, Harry could see how the Rangers had had so much trouble with it so far. While Mutitus was at least a full head shorter than both the Megazord and the Dragonzord, it made up for this slightly smaller stature by being far and away more nimble than both. Any time either machine attacked, be it a punch from the Megazord or a tail or claw swipe from the Dragonzord, Mutitus would almost negligently duck or spin away from the strike before moving back inside their guard and delivering a swift blow.

Harry was momentarily startled by a scuffing sound next to him, but relaxed when he looked over to see Tommy standing from a crouch, having just leapt to Harry's building. "Things don't look too good right now, do they?"

Harry shook his head as Tommy came to stand next to him, the two watching the battle before them solemnly. "Not really… Megazord is too slow and Dragonzord is a bit too wild with its attacks. Mutitus is staying too close to the Megazord for Dragonzord to be able to properly engage it for fear of hitting the others…"

Tommy seemed deep in thought before nodding firmly. "Well then, I guess we need to give the Dragonzord a little more help." Without another word, Tommy brought the Dragon Dagger up and played the rally tune. Immediately, the Dragonzord stepped back from the battle and stopped moving, much to Mutitus's confusion if its tilted head was any indication. With another nod, Tommy clenched his free hand into a fist. "Alright, it's time to do this the old fashioned way." Without another word, Tommy leapt into the air toward the Dragonzord, covering at least a hundred yards if not more, before landing atop his Zord and then dropping through some kind of hatch."

Then his voice came from Harry's communicator. "Alright guys, Green Ranger checking in. Dragonzord and I are ready to take this guy down!"

"Huh…" Harry mused after the Dragonzord entered the battle once more, now moving more precisely than before. "It looks like Tommy is controlling his Zord directly now instead of through his songs… Hedwig, do you have anything like that?"

 _-I am… unsure, Harry/Wizard. Though I do not believe there is any kind of trapdoor anywhere on me in this form._ -

Harry shrugged before turning his attention back to the fight. Now that Tommy was controlling the Dragonzord, the tide of the battle was turning. With a little help from Hedwig, the now faster Dragonzord was able to prevent Mutitus from taking advantage of the slower Megazord as easily and the Rangers had landed several strong hits in the process.

Then the air was split by Rita's laughter. "BELIEVE THIS, POWER PUNKS. MUTITUS IS NOTHING COMPARED TO THE MONSTER I HAVE IN STORE FOR YOU NEXT. BEWARE THE TERROR… OF LOKAR!"

"What the…" Harry tried to locate Rita, but her voice had emanated from everywhere at once. It was even possible that she was merely projecting her voice from her moon palace to try and distract them now that the Megazord and Dragonzord appeared to have the upper hand.

Before any further musing could take place, the sky suddenly went black. It wasn't a gradual thing either. One moment it was a bright and sunny blue sky overhead with a few random clouds, and the next it was a starless night.

Once more laughter echoed throughout the area, though this time it was much deeper in pitch and accompanied by a surge of the darkest example of the Power Harry had felt in his time in this dimension. Mutitus seemed to relax even as bolts of lightning lanced through the sky, centered on a point over its head. The Rangers were confused though, their Zords looking this way and that as they tried to figure out what was going on. Hedwig too was confused, based on the mental feeling Harry got from her, but she was more concerned with avoiding the lightning bolts and so flew down to hover just behind the Megazord and Dragonzord.

Mere moments later, the lightning coalesced into a gigantic blue head with incredibly spiky hair, the same one Zordon had shown them in the Viewing Globe earlier. The floating and vaguely phantasmal head was laughing maniacally as the Zords all recoiled slightly at its sudden appearance.

Rita's laughter began anew, still echoing from everywhere. "PREPARE TO MEET YOUR DESTINY, RANGERS." Then her voice took on a strange cadence, one that reverberated with Power. " _OH GREAT LOKAR, BEND TO MY WILL. MAY YOUR BREATH OF DOOM MAKE MUTITUS MORE HORRIBLE STILL!_ "

Lightning once more split the sky, arcing around the floating head confirmed to be Lokar before a wicked smirk stretched across its face. "Yes, Summoner. They shall feel the Power of Lokar!" While Harry watched on, all but paralyzed by the immense amount of dark Power flowing from Lokar, the head opened its mouth wide and released a gout of what looked like steam that washed over Mutitus, entirely hiding it from view.

When the steam cleared off though, it was clear that the monster had gone through a drastic transformation. Where once it had looked like a zombie type thing, now Mutitus looked more like a serpentine demon of some kind. It still had the same bone like shoulder and arm plates, but now there was a sort of short cape coming from its shoulders. Its lower body remained much the same, but there was now a comparatively tiny representation of Lokar's head mounted on its chest. And finally, its head was now on a long stalk-like neck that made it taller than the Zords it was squaring off against.

While Lokar and Rita laughed, Mutitus gave out a grumbling roar of challenge and charged toward the three clustered Zords. Hedwig quickly beat her wings once and fired up her rocket boosters, almost instantly shooting off into the air where Mutitus couldn't reach her, but that meant little as the monster merely charged bodily into the Megazord and knocked the machine back while barely recoiling itself.

The difference in the battle became clear almost instantly. Whereas before, Mutitus had used its smaller size and greater speed to avoid the Rangers' attacks, now it was so powerful that it didn't even have to. Whatever Lokar had done to the monster had made it strong enough to shake off even a direct strike from the Dragonzord's tail drill.

"Shit!" Jason cursed over the communicator just as Mutitus landed another strong blow across the Megazord's chest. "Nothing we do can faze this guy now. Harry, any ideas?"

Harry narrowed his eyes as his mind raced. "I don't know, Jason. Whatever Lokar did to Mutitus supercharged it with Power. I don't think any spells I cast on it would hold for even a second before they were overwhelmed…"

Hedwig took that moment to make another stoop at Mutitus, carefully picking her trajectory to keep her from passing very close to the still laughing Lokar. This time though, when Hedwig fired her laser blasts, Mutitus merely shrugged them off, and when she tried to rake him with her talons, Mutitus actually managed to grab hold of one of them. This caused Hedwig to begin flapping her wings frantically in an attempt to escape.

It was not to be, however, as the monster's grip was too strong. After a few seconds, it began spinning in place while holding Hedwig out in front of it. Eventually Mutitus's momentum became too great for Hedwig to overcome and she was pulled into a level orbit around it. Finally, while Harry looked on helplessly, Mutitus released Hedwig, sending her flying through the air toward the Megazord and Dragonzord which had been standing by trying to find some way to help the other Zord.

The end result of this was Hedwig crashing into the other two, knocking them all to the ground in a heap.

"Hedwig!" Harry shouted, looking around frantically before apparating to a building closer to the pile of Zords. "Hedwig are you alright?"

It took a few moments for Hedwig to respond, and when she did, her mental voice sounded somewhat rattled. – _I… I believe I am mostly undamaged, Harry/Wizard. As are the other Rangers. I do not think I make a good projectile, Harry/Wizard._ -

Hedwig's head spun around a few times as she tediously extricated herself from the pile of robots. Once she was off them, though not yet airborne, the other two were able to climb back to their feet somewhat unsteadily while Mutitus looked on, a somehow haughty look on its serpentine face.

"How are we going to beat this guy?" Harry asked himself aloud, once more looking toward Mutitus, who was just watching them with its arms crossed. "No matter what we've thrown at it, Mutitus just shakes it off and comes back twice as hard."

"We can't give up you guys!" Jason called through the communicator once the Megazord was fully up again, though decidedly worse for wear with the large number of scorch marks dotting its hull. "Let's try the Dragonzord Battle Mode!"

"Right!" The others chorused as one.

Their plan was interrupted, however, when Rita's laughter took on an even higher pitch before she began speaking again. "Now you're finished, Rangers! Hit them Mutitus! And I'll send them to the Island!"

Mutitus unfolded its arms before flinging them forward and opening its mouth wide. From within its gaping maw came a spray of some kind of white foam that stuck fast to the Megazord and Dragonzord. Hedwig seeing the attack coming and not liking her position on the ground, fired her rockets once more, launching herself into the air fast enough to avoid the foam attack, though the powerful burst left her too high for an immediately counterattack.

The Megazord and Dragonzord almost immediately began showing a reaction to the foam as their movements became short and jerky, almost as if they couldn't move too well.

"What is this stuff?" Tommy cried out, grunting as he tried to move the Dragonzord.

"It's some kind of highly adhesive mass." Billy responded quickly. "It seems to be gluing our Zords in place!"

Hearing this, Harry began gathering his Power before apparating to the closest building he could reach, this one placing the now frozen Zords between him and Mutitus and Lokar. Moving as quickly as he could, Harry wove the Power into a vanishing spell and let it loose upon the foam covering the two Zords. For an instant, the spell took hold and the stuff started to dissolve, and then Mutitus resumed the spray and Harry's spell was shattered.

"It's no use, guys." Harry panted into his communicator, slightly winded from the high power spell. "Mutitus replaces the stuff faster than I can get rid of it."

"AND NOW!" Rita's voice echoed once more, "BE GONE POWER RANGERS!"

From atop Mutitus's head, where Harry could barely make out a tiny figure that had to be Rita, a bright Red light grew. In mere moments, the light was blindingly bright, forcing Harry to look away just as Rita released her spell, sending a beam of magical energy toward the downed Zords and the Rangers.

- _Harry/Wizard!_ \- Hedwig's mental scream barely registered in Harry's mind, frozen as he was in the face of the massive spell bearing down upon them. Harry barely even noticed when Hedwig's massive mechanical talons closed around him, yanking him off the rooftop and into the air, leaving deep furrows behind where her claws had dug into the building. She managed to get out of the way just before the red beam washed over where he had been standing.

When he finally came to himself again, Harry looked down upon the battlefield from where he and Hedwig were flying. He watched as the Megazord and Dragonzord, still frozen in place, tilted and finally fell to the ground. He looked toward Mutitus and swore he could feel Rita's steely glare as she watched the Magi Ranger and his Zord fly away, having avoided whatever plot she had set into motion to defeat the Rangers.

"Guys," Harry called into this communicator, keeping his other arm wrapped tightly around Hedwig's gigantic talon. "Jason! Trini! Tommy! Zack! Anyone! This is Harry, come in!"

There was no response.

-MR-

Thanks for reading and don't forget to review,

Tenstar12


	26. Chapter 26

Magi Ranger

By: Tenstar12

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or Power Rangers.

 **Chapter 26, in Which Harry and Hedwig Step Up**

Three steps.

Turn.

Three steps.

Turn.

Three steps.

Turn.

Pacing in the Command Center wasn't nearly as good for letting off anxiety as Harry might have liked. There just wasn't enough room in the ring of consoles to really let out much steam. Worse still, the watching forms of Zordon, Alpha, and Hedwig were unable to help alleviate Harry's feelings of helplessness any more than his rapid pacing.

After saving him from Rita's spell, Hedwig had taken Harry far enough away from Mutitus and Rita to avoid further attack. Once she returned to her smaller form, Harry then teleported the two back to the Command Center to try and figure out what had just happened. Upon arrival, Zordon had explained, rather briefly, that Rita had sent the other six Rangers outside of his reach and there was nothing that could be done to help them from where they were now.

From what he had seen in the Viewing Globe, Harry knew that Mutitus actually wasn't causing any further problems in the city. In fact, as soon as Rita had cast her spell, the monster went completely silent. It was still shifting as if breathing, but it wasn't destroying the downed Zords or any more of the buildings in the city. It was all quite puzzling, but not anywhere near the top of Harry's mind at the moment.

Suddenly, the Magi Ranger paused in the middle of his pacing with a frustrated grunt and spun to face Zordon. "Are you absolutely sure there's nothing you can do for the others?"

Zordon sighed as he looked forlornly at his apprentice. "I'm sorry, Harry, but as I said before, Rita has trapped the other Rangers on her Island of Illusion in a parallel dimension where I cannot reach them. They must rely on each other and have confidence in themselves in order to escape. I know they are capable, but for the time being you will be on your own against Rita and her forces."

"And how am I supposed to do that, Zordon?" Harry snapped, a swirl of wind kicking up briefly as his magic surged in response to his emotions. "How am I, a barely trained beginner of a Power Ranger, going to face off against a monster that the entire team couldn't beat? And that's not even bringing that Lokar guy into the equation. The Power I felt from him was immense."

Zordon said nothing, merely staring back with an even look on his face. After a few moments, Harry sighed and forced himself to relax. "I'm sorry, Zordon…" Harry mumbled before looking up to meet his mentor's eyes again. "I just… I don't know what to do here. It was bad enough back in my old world when I was thrown into the fight with little to no preparation against opponents many years my senior, but to be in a situation now that's so similar… it's a bit nerve wracking. But I shouldn't have snapped at you over it."

Zordon nodded, a soft smile on his face. "Apology accepted, Harry. And I do understand your dilemma. As you said, you are indeed poorly prepared for a solo fight against Rita's forces. However, I do not believe that Lokar will be as much of a threat as you fear. While he is indeed a dark wizard of incredible strength and skill, his nature and that of his entrapment works to our benefit. He can only take actions as directed by the one summoning him and as defined in the spell that is used to do so. Failure to carefully word the summoning ritual to call Lokar to our dimension has cost the lives of many an untrained or ill-informed potential summoner. Lokar is in the habit of twisting a summoner's words to get every bit of freedom he can and release his rage at the universe wherever he can, even if that means turning on his summoner at the first opportunity which inevitably returns him to his prison upon their death. Rita is anything but ignorant of this and will likely have instructed Lokar only to enhance the strength of Mutitus and then remain there until released back to his dimensional prison. It has been found unwise to task Lokar with anything personally destructive in the past as he tends to turn that back onto his summoners especially often."

Zordon paused for a moment to let Harry process the information before continuing. "In any case, the fact remains that you are not alone in this fight. You have Alpha and I here to provide advice and support, and you have Hedwig to help you on the field of battle. If you work together, combine your Powers as one, you will find that you are infinitely more powerful than you were separately."

Harry felt a surge of Power flare up within him briefly and eyed Zordon warily. "Was that some sort of poorly veiled advice that will lead to some more of the dramatics that the Grid loves so much, but will give me an edge in the fight?"

Zordon merely smiled, a few muffled chuckles escaping him, much to Harry's chagrin.

Before Harry could further grill the floating head on the potential hidden meanings behind his last statement, the alarm in the Command Center began going off. "Ai yai yai yai yai!" Alpha shouted pointing behind Harry. "Look at the Viewing Globe!"

Harry spun in place only to find himself looking into Goldar's ever hideous visage in the Viewing Globe. "Mageling…" the monster simian grumbled. "I know you can hear me, Mageling…"

"What the…" Harry breathed before turning his head to glance at Zordon over his shoulder. "How did he manage to connect to the Viewing Globe? I thought it was entirely reliant on your own spells from within your time warp."

Zordon's brow furrowed. "I am not entirely sure, but it is likely that Rita somehow caused the connection with her magic."

Harry rolled his eyes, careful to turn back to the Globe before doing so, as Goldar continued speaking. "You left so suddenly before, Mageling, that we weren't able to finish our fight."

Harry snorted. "Yeah right, he ran off after Tommy decked him…"

"But I think that you will come running to fight me again now." Goldar's face took on a sneer as the image began to pan out, showing he was standing in a large, open area mostly made of grey rock. Based on the vertical stone wall behind him, and the fact that Rita never seemed to do anything anywhere but around Angel Grove, Harry would bet it was one of the quarries outside of the city. "You see, I have a little friend of yours, Mageling…"

Harry's heart dropped when he heard a familiar voice emit from the Viewing Globe. "Let me go, you big creep!" The camera finally drew out far enough for Harry to see Marie, the little girl he had rescued just an hour before, with her upper arm held firmly in Goldar's grasp as she struggled ineffectually. "Let me go I said! Magi Ranger will come and beat you up just like he did before! Just you wait and see!"

Goldar rounded on Marie and drew his other arm back as if to strike her. "Silence child! Or I shall end you myself before your precious Magi Ranger can arrive!" Marie shrunk into herself, her fear shone through her face and the tears now running down her cheeks. Goldar huffed before turning back to the 'camera.' "As you can see, Mageling, my patience with this child is running thin. If you don't come to the rock quarry where you first showed your Power in the next thirty minutes, this child shall pay the price!"

The Viewing Globe went blank as Harry stared, wide eyed with fury and concern for the child. Turning back to face Zordon, Harry barely kept himself from shouting. "I have to go, Zordon. I have to save her. I can't just let Goldar kill her!"

"I know, Harry, and I agree completely." Zordon's calming voice had little effect on Harry's once more raging emotions as he fidgeted in place. "But we must not rush into this. Doing so will only put the girl, and yourself, in even greater danger."

"Then what should we do, Zordon?" Harry barely restrained a huff as he began massaging his forehead with one hand to try and relieve some of the tension he was feeling while the other clenched into a fist at his side. "We can't wait too long or there's no telling what Goldar will do to Marie."

Zordon nodded solemnly. "Let us consider our options…"

-MR-

As with most of the strangely numerous rock quarries and flatlands around Angel Grove, the one Marie was currently in was almost completely barren. Stone and gravel was piled up here and there, but there was no sign of the heavy machinery needed to move such large quantities of it, indicating to those who knew of such things that the quarry was not currently being mined.

Marie herself, still in what she had earlier that day considered her lucky dress since she had been saved by a Power Ranger while wearing it, sat near the center of the area. Standing to either side of her, if the crouched and jerky stances they were in could be considered standing, were two putty patrollers. Goldar, who was now standing a short distance away idly swinging his sword, had called down the duo of clay constructs after the first time the child had attempted to run away. He knew that they needed her as bait to draw in the Magi Ranger, but that didn't mean he was going to deal with keeping track of her personally.

Growling to himself, Goldar waved his free hand in the air, an ornate looking hourglass appearing in a flash and floating before him, the sands almost all on the bottom. With a cruel smirk, Goldar snatched the floating hourglass out of the air and moved closer to Marie once more, setting it on the ground before her shaking form with a thud. "It seems your hero isn't going to be showing up, little human."

Marie sniffled a few times before shaking her head violently. "You're wrong!" she shouted up at Goldar defiantly, sniffing once more and wiping her nose with her forearm as she tried to fight back another bout of tears. "I know that the Magi Ranger will save me! He's a Power Ranger, and saving people and beating up bad guys is what Power Rangers do! My mommy said so!"

Goldar threw back his head and laughed wickedly. "Oh, you think you know him so well, do you? Did you know that your dear Magi Ranger is a coward at heart? Why else wouldn't he have shown up before now? The thirty minute time limit I gave him is almost up and a true Power Ranger would have come here right away at the first sign of danger to anyone, especially a child."

Marie continued to glare at him with all the power in her twelve year old body. "Well what do you know? You're just a big dummy!"

Goldar growled again before swiping his sword at Marie, making her recoil as the blade passed a mere fraction of an inch from her face, and watched as a few severed hairs fell to the ground before her. "That was a warning, child." Goldar grunted as he returned to a relaxed position, smirking at Marie's shocked and frightened face. "Next time I intend to cut a bit deeper than a few loose hairs."

Marie just scrambled backwards across the ground and away from Goldar as quickly as she could. She didn't make it far though as the two putties grabbed her upper arms and hefted her to her feet at a small motion from Goldar. The monster in question, however, just picked up the hourglass once more, smiling as he watched the last few seconds' worth of sand drain away.

Goldar threw the hourglass aside where it shattered on the ground. "You see! He isn't here. The Magi Ranger is nothing more than a coward, and you shall pay the price for his cowardice."

Goldar began stalking forward to where the two putties were still holding Marie between them while the girl futilely tried to escape their stony grasp. "Farewell, human." Goldar growled as he pulled his sword back to cleave the girl in two.

Just as he was about to bring his weapon forward, a bolt of magical energy slammed into his back, wrenching the sword from his fist and sending it spinning through the air where it was caught rather nonchalantly by the purple clad figure of the Magi Ranger. "I hope I didn't keep you waiting too long, Goldar. Traffic was terrible getting here, what with that big snake monster standing there and blocking up all the roads through downtown."

Goldar snarled as he spun around fully to face the Ranger. "Mageling! So you did show after all. I didn't think you had it in you after I beat you so soundly earlier today."

Marie perked up instantly seeing the Magi Ranger beyond her captor. "Magi Ranger! I knew you would show up! I just knew it! You see, you big dummy! I told you he'd be here and that he'd save me!"

Goldar glanced back over his shoulder briefly before scoffing. "You aren't saved just yet, child. As soon as I'm done with him, I'll be back for you."

"Ah, but I seem to have your sword here, Goldar," the Ranger continued. "It seems to me that you have a surprisingly difficult time against me without your sword."

Goldar merely narrowed his eyes as he felt his anger rising. "I don't need my blade to defeat the likes of you, Mageling!" With a roar, Goldar brought his right hand up to his eyes briefly before flinging it out to his side accompanied by twin lances of bright yellow energy that shot across the distance between the two in the blink of an eye. An explosion erupted around the Magi Ranger, hiding him from view and bringing a cry of fright from Marie as the shockwave washed over her.

As the smoke cleared moments later, Goldar growled in frustration when he caught sight of the Magi Ranger, still standing in the same place, but with a translucent purple barrier around him. "Wow, Goldar, I'm impressed," he mocked. "That one nearly got me."

Moving somewhat unsteadily, the Magi Ranger took a few steps forward, Goldar's sword tightly clasped in his left hand. "Now, Goldar, release the girl, and I might not turn you into a frog when I'm through with you."

Goldar let out another roar as he charged toward the defiant Ranger. "Never! I will not be bested by the likes of you. Not now and not ever!"

The furious monster covered the distance in mere seconds, leaving the Magi Ranger only enough time to take a half step back, as if in shock, before the monster's fist was planted firmly into his chest with a loud clang. The Ranger went flying backwards, dropping Goldar's sword on the way, before hitting the ground and rolling head over feet for several more yards and sliding to a stop.

Goldar almost casually strolled toward his weapon before picking it up and twirling it in hand. "And where are your confident words now, Mageling?"

"…" the Magi Ranger was mumbling to himself as he slowly climbed back to his feet. "Ai yai yai…"

Any further taunting from Goldar was cut off by a victorious shout coming from behind him. " _Diffindo!_ "

Marie gave off a short shriek of fright as each of the two putties holding her in place lost their heads. Quite literally as they fell from their necks just before their bodies collapsed, luckily releasing her before pulling her down with them. Then, mere moments later, the bodies simply ceased to exist. There one moment and gone the next.

"Are you alright, Marie?"

Marie spun around quickly, her hair flying out as she did, and saw the Magi Ranger standing behind her, staff in hand and the silver runes on his suit blazing brightly. "But… you…" she stuttered, turning again to see the other Magi Ranger back on his feet with a confused looking Goldar mimicking her as he looked back and forth between the two Rangers. "How did…"

"WHAT'S GOING ON HERE?!" Goldar roared, throwing his head in fury.

Harry, from his position next to Marie, jumped slightly before crouching down and picking up a small stone. "Marie, things are about to get kinda scary here, so I'm gonna send you somewhere safe, ok?"

Marie turned back to look at him before nodding slowly. "Are you gonna make me spin around a bunch again?"

Harry chuckled as he tapped the stone with his staff, turning it into a portkey. "Yeah, I know it's not the most comfortable way to travel, but a bit dizzy and nauseous is better than getting hurt by monkey butt over there, right?"

Marie nodded quickly, a brief giggle escaping her lips, "Monkey butt…" Before Harry could give her the portkey, she turned to face Goldar again. "He called you a Monkey butt!" She started pointing and jeering at the monster while sticking her tongue out between taunts. "Monkey butt, Monkey butt, you are a Monkey butt!"

Groaning to himself, Harry quickly stuck the portkey stone to Marie's back with a quick sticking charm before activating it and sending her, once again, to the Youth Center.

"Well…" Harry gave a sigh of satisfaction as he stood up again. "Now that that's taken care of… Good job Alpha, you can head on back now."

Goldar spun to face the first Magi Ranger again when he started to speak. "Thank you, Harry. You don't have to tell me twice." Mid-sentence, that Magi Ranger's form began to waver before the illusion around him shattered revealing the form and voice of Alpha 5. "Activating teleportation sequence now." Without another word, Alpha vanished in a flash of light, teleporting himself back to the Command Center, his part in the rescue now completed.

Now only having one target, Goldar spun to face Harry once more and took a deep breath to calm himself. "Very tricky, Mageling. I never thought you had it in you."

Harry shifted into a fighting stance, holding his staff defensively as Goldar began to approach him. "As you've learned time after time already, I'm rather full of surprises, Goldar."

Goldar smirked before stopping his approach around ten feet away and taking a stance of his own. "Yes, but is one of those surprises a sudden increase in your fighting skills? You know that you don't stand a chance against me, and once you're out of the way, my Empress will take over Angel Grove, and from there, the world!"

Harry smirked briefly under his helmet before speaking, doing his best to keep his voice steady. "Is that why Mutitus is just standing in the middle of the city? Because Rita wants Angel Grove mostly intact? I was wondering about that. It should have leveled half the buildings by now, but it hasn't moved a bit."

Goldar scowled at what he had inadvertently revealed before shaking his head slightly. "It doesn't matter, Mageling. You will not live beyond today!"

"We'll see…" Harry replied mockingly, unable to fight the smirk now stretched across his face.

Goldar charged Harry at full speed, swinging his sword in an overhand strike that Harry blocked with surprising ease. As Goldar began to press down with his sword, Harry shifted his grip on the Magi Staff, angling it so that Goldar's blade slid to the side, throwing the monster off balance and giving Harry an opening to spin his weapon around and land a solid blow to Goldar's back, sending him to the ground in a shower of sparks.

The monster growled as he climbed quickly back to his feet while Harry retook his stance before charging in again. This time, Harry parried Goldar's thrust, almost nonchalantly sweeping the weapon to one side, before stepping the other way himself and tripping Goldar up with the bottom of his staff. Spinning his weapon briefly, Harry fired a point blank Forcewave, the purple spell smashing into the now prone Goldar's back and driving him several inches into the ground in a Goldar-shaped crater.

"It seems that I have the advantage this time, Goldar." Harry mused, stepping back slightly while Goldar slowly pulled himself free. "Why don't you just run along back to the moon like a good little monkey, eh?"

Goldar snarled angrily as he regained his feet. "I don't know how you did that, Mageling, but it won't happen again!" Goldar lunged forward, thrusting his sword out in front of him, but Harry merely rolled his eyes.

"Oh yeah," he mumbled. "Because that tactic worked so well for you already…"

To Harry, it was as if Goldar was moving in slow motion.

With the Power running through him at that moment, Power that was being willingly donated by Zordon and transmitted to him, it was as if every single sense he had, every hint of awareness, was running at super-speed.

This was the plan Zordon, Alpha, and Harry had come up with to deal with the problem in Angel Grove.

First, Alpha would teleport in and distract Goldar while under an Illusion to appear as the Magi Ranger. Once Goldar was away from Marie, Harry himself teleported in and freed her. The Super Putties were an unexpected twist that they probably should have expected (Rita didn't seem as if she could do anything without sending down a horde of Putties first), but Harry's quick and quite overpowered cutting and vanishing spells had taken care of them and prevented them from regenerating easily enough.

Once Marie was out of the way, Alpha was to head back to the Command Center himself and monitor Zordon's condition. While the old wizard was sending Harry Power to aid him in his fight, he was both vulnerable to attack and liable to drain himself so far that he would lose connection to the Command Center again. If that happened, it was entirely possible that he would die within his time warp prison before they could locate him again. While the time warp prevented him from aging, it also greatly slowed the rate at which he regained his strength, and so extreme exhaustion, such as that caused by overusing the Power, could be fatal to him in much the same way untreated magical exhaustion worked in Harry's old world.

This had all been explained to Harry in a very short time, and it had worried him greatly. The last thing he wanted to do was be responsible for the loss of the Power Rangers' mentor while they were trapped on the Island of Illusion. Jason didn't really need another reason to dislike him after all, especially after they had only just somewhat settled things between them, but Zordon had assured him that he would be fine.

Right now though, with the incredible feeling of Zordon's Power running through him, completely blocking off the comparatively tiny supply of his own Power and magic, Harry was a bit too euphoric to worry about much of anything. He was not, however, too far gone to keep his mind on task.

In the blink of an eye, Harry knocked Goldar's sword aside again before whipping his staff around in a blur and jabbing the butt end into Goldar's armored stomach. The monkey monster stopped dead, the magic enhanced thrust delivered by Harry easily countering Goldar's momentum without even affecting the Magi Ranger's stance.

While Goldar watched with a shocked expression, gasping furiously to regain his breath, Harry flipped his weapon again before rapping Goldar's wrist, forcing him to drop his sword. Smirking cheekily, Harry used the top of his staff to lift up Goldar's chin before placing it up against his chest plate. "Bye." Harry smiled cheekily under his helmet while waving with his free hand. " _Flippendo!_ "

The knockback jinx sent Goldar hurtling backwards, flipping through the air uncontrollably as he was still too disoriented by the blow to his stomach to recover. " _Bombarda!"_ Harry's exploding curse lanced from the top of his staff and chased down Goldar just as his tumbling flight began to slow. The curse hit him and blasted him even further back, now smoking slightly and with numerous scorch marks on his face and armor.

When the monster finally hit the ground, he was almost too injured to stand again, but when he did, it was to the sight of the Magi Ranger slowly pacing towards him, his brightly glowing staff spinning furiously as he gathered Power. "I… I don't understand… HOW DID YOU GET THIS STRONG!" Goldar demanded, one arm cradling his chest where it felt like he had a few broken ribs. "I SHOULD BE ABLE TO MOP THE FLOOR WITH YOU! YOU'RE JUST A PUNY HUMAN!"

Harry smirked again as he continued spinning his staff. "And there you go again, Goldar, always underestimating me." With a grunt, Harry shifted his spinning weapon into a powerful thrust straight up into the air, changing the gathered Power into an enormous bolt of lightning that arced up into the sky before striking back down a moment later and engulfing Goldar in a blaze of magical energy.

Goldar's scream of pain was cut off mere moments into it with a pulse of dark Power. Harry just sighed and let his spell die off, seeing no sign of Goldar or what might be left of him, but knowing that Rita most likely pulled him back to the moon with her own Power, saving him from destruction at the last moment.

With yet another sigh, Harry released the tentative grasp he had on the Power loaned to him by Zordon, the runes on his suit almost immediately returning to their normal, dull silver color as he slumped to a knee in sudden weakness.

Moments later, his communicator went off. "Harry. Come in, Harry."

Sighing, Harry lifted his left arm up while his right clutched his staff which was pretty much the only thing keeping him upright at the moment. "Harry here." He grunted. "Go ahead, Alpha."

"Oh, good." Alpha sounded slightly less panicky now that Harry had responded. "You're still conscious. The sensors here detected Goldar being teleported away, but we couldn't tell how you were dealing with the aftershocks of Zordon's Power."

Harry panted briefly as he felt his own Power and magic returning to him, filling him with strength now that the greater well of Zordon's energy wasn't there. "Yeah, I'm recovering, sure enough. Might need a minute though…"

"I'm afraid you won't have much time for that, Harry." Zordon's voice came through, sounding a bit winded, but otherwise alright. "While it is good that you didn't lose consciousness after releasing my Power, you still have to deal with Mutitus."

Harry groaned, stifling the complaints he wanted to voice as he forced himself back to his feet. "And how am I supposed to do that, Zordon? You already said that even with your Power I wouldn't be able to magic Mutitus away, and we both know that Hedwig just doesn't have that kind of strength on her own. If the Megazord and Dragonzord couldn't take it down together, how can Hedwig and I manage?"

Harry could hear the slightly humor in Zordon's voice. "I have spoken with the Grid, and it is time for the next aspect of your Power to be revealed to you. Trust in yourself, Harry. Trust in yourself, in Hedwig, and in the Power, and it will protect and guide you to victory."

The wizard had to fight down another complaint. "So basically I was right earlier about your advice and the dramatics and stuff?" When Zordon didn't reply, Harry slumped slightly. "Great…"

"You will be fine, Harry." Zordon spoke again, pride overtaking his voice now. "You have worked hard to get where you are now, both in your Karate studies and with me in your studies of the Grid and the Power. While this is much earlier than either of us would have liked for you to be forced to fight without the other Rangers, I know that you are ready for the challenge ahead. Just as the other Rangers must rally their confidence in themselves and each other to escape the Island of Illusion, you too must believe in yourself if you are to win this next battle."

Shaking off the last of the wariness in his body, Harry stretched briefly before nodding to himself and bringing the communicator back up. "Alright, Zordon. I can only do my best I suppose, but I promise you I won't give up."

Harry could almost feel Zordon's nod before he spoke again. "I know you won't let the other Rangers down, Harry. Now go, and may the Power protect you."

Nodding to himself, Harry brought his left hand down to his belt buckle and was almost immediately enveloped in a column of purple light that quickly arced into the sky and flew toward Angel Grove proper, taking Harry with it.

-MR-

The pillar of light touched down on the roof of a skyscraper in Angel Grove and quickly faded out to reveal Harry in his Magi Ranger uniform. Standing before him in profile, unmoving as stone, was the serpentine form of the Lokar empowered Mutitus. Lokar's head was still present in the darkened sky, glaring hatefully down at Angel Grove.

Harry sighed as he looked over the view before him. Just as he had seen in the Viewing Globe earlier, Mutitus stood in place, gazing ahead blankly. From where he was standing, Harry could barely make out the top half of the Megazord around the intervening buildings and through the darkness. The thick foam/glue substance Mutitus had sprayed them with was still caked on as the machine lay there, as lifeless as Mutitus appeared.

This was still rather curious to Harry despite Goldar's tiny slip, but not really something helpful to him at the moment. "I still don't know what Zordon was talking about, but I guess the best way to figure things out with the Power is to fly by the seat of my pants and rely on instinct. Luckily, my Gryffindors charge ahead mentality is perfect for that…" Harry sighed before readying himself mentally. "You ready, Hedwig?"

- _As always, Harry/Wizard._ -

With a smile for his familiar back at the Command Center, Harry began gathering up his Power in preparation for battle. Almost immediately, Lokar's eyes twitched in his direction before the floating head turned to face him. "So!" the head drawled. "It seems the little wizard has returned to try and face off against the power of Lokar once again…"

Harry didn't bother to respond, doing his best to keep Zordon's words in mind. Lokar was bound tightly by the spell Rita used to summon him and there was very little that he would be able to do in a fight seeing as Rita apparently wanted to keep Angel Grove intact. No, this battle would be between Harry and Hedwig and the serpent-headed Mutitus that was now turning to face them in response to Lokar's taunt.

Feeling his Power reach a peak, Harry nodded firmly to himself before passing his staff to his left hand and throwing his right into the air. "I call upon the Power of the Silver Owl Zord. HEDWIG!"

In a bright flash of light and accompanied by a loud screech, Hedwig appeared in the skies over Angel Grove in her Zord form, already in a full speed dive with her talons extended toward Mutitus. Given little time to react, Mutitus was completely unable to avoid the sudden attack, and so fell to the ground after Hedwig's talons raked across its face and down its long neck.

With an inarticulate growl, Mutitus climbed back to its feet before bringing its hands together over the Lokar face on its chest. Moments later, it threw its hands forward, the eyes on the Lokar face flashing with a few pulses of light before twin arcs of multicolored lightning shot out toward Hedwig. The Zord was moving too fast though. As she beat her wings and fired up her turbines to ascend again, she easily rose over the dangerous bolts before making a long turn and attempting another stoop.

Mutitus fired off the lightning attack once more, barely missing Hedwig when she slip-rolled to the side, bleeding off a bit of speed and altering the angle of her attack enough to catch the monster off guard once again and grab ahold of its right arm. Beating her wings furiously and screeching all the while, Hedwig pulled Mutitus with her into the air, firing up her rockets to help retain her speed before flaring her wings and releasing the monster, effectively flinging it beyond the city limits and into the mountainous region to the North.

Smiling, Harry nodded firmly. "Good going, Hedwig, you got him out of the city. Now let's see if we can keep things going. Keep dogging Mutitus like that and I'll see if I can't find an opening to hit him with some of my more damaging spells."

- _It shall be done, Harry/Wizard._ -

Feeling much more confident now, Harry twisted in place, apparating to another rooftop before repeating the process until he could line of sight to a short peak near where Hedwig was once more circling Mutitus. By this point, the monster was furious. Alternating between its lightning attack and the adhesive foam in its furious attempts to down the circling owl Zord. Hedwig continued to stay one step ahead, however, often adjusting her course just enough to avoid the monster's attack only to lash out with her talons as she passed.

Harry hummed to himself in thought as he watched. "It seems as if the guy is powerful, but really stupid. He can't plan far enough ahead to counter Hedwig's attacks… We need to try and use that to our advantage since Hedwig's attacks don't really seem to be doing much damage…"

"Don't think this fight is over just yet, Mageling!" Rita's voice echoed across the area with a crack of thunder. "You seem to have forgotten about Lokar!"

Harry snorted. "I already know that Lokar is bound by your spell and unable to do more than he already has, Rita. I don't have anything to worry about from him."

Rita's cackling laughter sounded out before she spoke again. "And who said that I only bound Lokar to one action in my spell?"

Harry's eyes widened beneath his visor as he saw his familiar begin another stoop. "Hedwig! Be careful!"

Before the owl could respond, Lokar's frightening visage appeared suddenly right in front of her. The unexpected appearance startled the sentient Zord, making her flare her wings and bank hard to the left, which left her open for Mutitus's lightning attack to catch her solidly in her right wing.

Harry's shout of concern echoed the Zord's screech of pain and dismay as she crashed to the ground, kicking up a huge cloud of dust as she slid to a stop.

"Hedwig!" Harry shouted, twisting in place to apparate closer and summoning up a burst of wind to help clear the settling dust and debris. When he finally caught sight of his familiar/Zord again, he nearly sobbed at the sight of her mangled right wing. Aside from a being slightly out of shape, the turbine blades were completely missing from the wing and the feather markings were badly scorched around it. Slowly, Hedwig struggled to a vertical base, her injured wing held out slightly as she hopped up in an attempt to regain altitude, only to drop back to the ground again, her one working turbine not enough to achieve lift.

- _I do not think I can fly anymore, Harry/Wizard. Given enough time, the Power will fix my wing, but for now I am helpless!_ \- Harry could almost feel the anger in Hedwig's mental voice as she glared at the somehow smug looking face of Mutitus and the clearly smug face of Lokar. If he were to guess, Rita most likely gave Lokar freedom to move around near a battle as he saw fit. Lokar had used this freedom to startle Hedwig enough to give Mutitus the time to hit her with his attack.

Harry growled to himself, turning to face the giant form of Mutitus from his spot near Hedwig's talons. "What do we do now…?"

"You must remember what I told you, Harry." Zordon's voice echoed from the communicator. "If you and Hedwig are to combine your Power, you will become stronger than ever before. You must believe in yourself, believe in Hedwig, and trust in the Power to protect and guide you. If you do so, you will surely be victorious."

Harry sighed before turning to glance up at Hedwig. – _I am ready, Harry/Wizard. We must work together to defeat this dead snake-thing and the mean floating head._ -

Harry nodded firmly, pulling himself together as best he could before drawing up the Power within him and letting himself go.

" **It's about time, young Harry.** " The voice of the Morphing Grid spoke into this mind, chastising him lightly. " **This monster, empowered by one who has perverted my Power cannot be allowed to remain. Prepare to receive the next use of the Power and the true Strength of your old companion's new form.** "

Feeling the grid take hold, Harry relaxed himself as best he could as his body performed a super jump, rising into the air quickly before back flipping and landing smoothly on top of Hedwig's head. Glancing down briefly, Harry saw the glimmer of light that was the Resurrection stone at the peak of the dome on her head before he once more felt Power flaring up within him.

Spinning his staff around him, Harry glared at the still cocky looking duo. "You think this is over already? Well, you're dead wrong!"

Gathering his Power into his staff, Harry stopped spinning it suddenly, holding the weapon vertically before him in two hands before bringing it down into the dome at his feet with a solid clang. Immediately, purple light flared up from the point of impact and Harry almost completely lost his feeling of self. It was as if he and Hedwig had truly become one being, a very literal translation of what Zordon had earlier advised them. Opening his/their eye, which had closed when Harry released his Power, Harry first noticed that he/they could still see clearly out of the solid plate on the right side of his/their face as if it was a normal, functioning eye. It was a relatively minor thing, but it was still the first thing to jump to his mind as Hedwig's own comfort in the form settled into him and prevented him from overreacting to the unfamiliar body he now found himself sharing.

- _Are you ready, Harry/Wizard? With the two of us standing as one, I find I can make use of a Power that would be most helpful in this battle._ -

Harry 'nodded,' feeling the owl body shift slightly as he did so. "Alright, Hedwig." He said, noting that his voice was echoing out around the area at the same time. "Let's get this done."

"And what good will fusing with your crippled Zord do you, Mageling?" Rita's echoing voice demanded. "With that wing damaged all you've done is make it easier for Mutitus to finish you off at the same time!"

Even while Rita was mocking them, Harry could feel a steady buildup of Power from within him/them. Suddenly, his/their wings flared out, the damaged right one slightly slower, and he/they hopped into the air before floating there as a purple flash of light shone from the Resurrection Stone atop his/their head.

Then, Harry felt his/their form transforming.

It started with the wing joints. The rotated horizontally at the shoulder until they were sitting parallel to the ground before folding backwards behind his/their head and neck and then down along his/their back. The feather tips meshed smoothly, even though some on the right wing were a bit bent out of place from Mutitus's attack, forming an almost cape-like structure.

Then, his/their chest split open down the middle, the now loose halves folding around a full 270 degrees to come to rest over the rockets that had folded up to his/their sides. On what used to be the inside of his/their chest, a pair of humanoid arms rested folded up, one on each side, until the panels locked into place over the rocket boosters and the arms relaxed, straightening out in a more natural position.

Below him/them, his/their legs seemed to unfold as well, extending out from within his/their torso as the individual talons locked together and folded up slightly to create more land-worthy feet.

Then, the owl head lifted up slightly before tilting forward, coming to a rest with the front of the face pointing downward and the dome atop his/their owl head with the Resurrection stone pointing straight forward. The avian head shifted back into the torso a bit before seeming to click into place as the rest of the torso compacted and shifted around it, quickly forming a more defined humanoid form as opposed to the rounder one of an owl with the purple orb from atop the owl's head resting in the center of the chest.

Finally, from where the owl head formerly sat, a humanoid head rose up. It had a few avian features in that there were feather like markings around the bottom of the head, almost seeming to flow up to the top where they created a sort of crest, but the actual face of the head was flat and smooth, a dark purple metal framing a sort of grilled faceplate and the dichromatic eyes, one the yellow of Hedwig, and the other Harry's own emerald green.

"Silver Owl Zord, Warrior Mode!" Harry/Hedwig shouted out as he/they moved their humanoid body together for the first time. Guided as they were by the Power, he/they moved smoothly into a fighting stance, his/their fingers hooked slightly to reveal the pointed talon-like tips on them.

Almost immediately, Harry felt a rush of information flood his/their minds. Spells he/they could use, fighting techniques, attack patterns and tactics that suited his/their new form. He/they now knew what this new form was capable of, what weapons he/they now had at their disposal, and at least half an idea of how to take the monster before them down.

Rita spoke once again, her echoing voice starting to sound the slightest bit nervous. "So… you seem to have your own Megazord now. I suppose that this new form will be a more appropriate challenge for one of my best warriors. Mutitus! Destroy them now!"

With another inarticulate roar, the serpentine monster charged forward, one hand drawn back to punch at him/them. Harry/Hedwig merely shifted to one side, letting the fist pass right by his/their face before ducking down slightly and delivering a swift backhand to Mutitus's side and slipping around behind it to rake his/their claws down its back.

It became very apparent with just that one exchange that this new form, while definitely more slender and a fair bit shorter than Mutitus's current form, indeed shorter than both the Megazord and the Dragonzord as well, it was also much, much faster.

Turning swiftly, as if the previous strikes had no effect on it, Mutitus swung wildly at Harry/Hedwig, attempting to use its immense strength to its advantage, but the fused duo merely danced around each blow, occasionally striking back with a swift jab or strike from his/their clawed hands that was summarily ignored by the monster. And so the battle continued.

Finally, after several minutes of ducking, dodging, and striking to no avail, Mutitus backed away and began charging its lightning attack again. Harry/Hedwig watched carefully as the eyes of the mini Lokar on Mutitus's chest glowed brightly before the lightning bolts lanced out. Mere moments before the attack would have hit, Harry/Hedwig thrust his/their arms forward with a triumphant shout. " _Protego!_ "

The lightning bolts flared harshly as they struck the translucent purple barrier that formed before Harry/Hedwig. Growling, Mutitus seemed to redouble its efforts, the bolts of lightning growing thicker while Harry/Hedwig began sliding backwards along the ground from the sheer kinetic force produced by the attack meeting his/their shield.

"Harry," Zordon's voice echoed throughout his/their mind. "You and Hedwig, powerful though you may feel in your current form, cannot hope to stand against the empowered Mutitus directly. Your only hope is to destroy the source of its enhanced power. According to our sensors, the Mark of Lokar on Mutitus's chest is the focal point. If you are able to sufficiently damage it, Mutitus will lose all of its strength and become vulnerable to conventional attacks once again."

Nodding, and noting that his/their mechanical head nodded when he did, Harry responded mentally. "Thanks for the heads up, Zordon. We'll see what we can do." Hoping that Zordon received his/their message, and also thankful that he/they didn't actually say that out loud (this double identity thing was getting difficult to manage), Harry/Hedwig once more slipped slightly to the side, shifting the facing of their shield and deflecting the overpowered lightning attack away and behind him/them, causing an explosion and kicking up debris.

Sagging slightly as the magical drain from the shield hit him/them briefly, Harry/Hedwig used the cover of the dust cloud formed by the deflected attack to dart forward, erupting from the cloud with his/their right hand cloaked in purple energy as he/they thrust it forward into the mini-Lokar on Mutitus's chest.

For an instant, everything froze. The wind blew past the two titans locked in place, the smaller, metallic one with a glowing purple hand thrust into the small effigy on the chest of the taller more serpentine one. And then, again all at once, Mutitus and Harry/Hedwig both were thrown back by a massive explosion emanating from the damaged Mark of Lokar.

Shaking his/their head groggily, and how strange was it for him/them to feel groggy with one now a mechanical owl and the other not expecting such a thing in this new mechanical form, Harry/Hedwig climbed back to their feet. Looking over the battlefield, he/they immediately noticed that Mutitus was having a much harder time standing again, and after a few more moments, it became apparent why.

Each time the monster tried to stand, its arms or legs would give out from under it. It seemed that the sudden lack of Lokar's Power had its own brand of side effect on Mutitus, quite similar to Harry's own reaction upon releasing Zordon's Power earlier. Once the dust cleared enough to make out more detail, Harry/Hedwig noted that on top of its apparent weakness, Mutitus had also reverted to its former, zombie-like appearance.

Smirking to him/their-self as Mutitus finally managed to regain its feet, if incredibly unsteadily, Harry/Hedwig took a fighting stance, once more holding his/their clawed hands at the ready. "You're going down now, dead-thing!"

While the weakened Mutitus stood there helplessly, Harry/Hedwig's wings unclasped from each other before spreading wide behind them while they hunched over slightly. Then, they suddenly shot forward in the blink of an eye and with a burst of Power and a crescent moon glowing in the air behind them. Reaching the monster in a fraction of a second, Harry/Hedwig lashed out with their once again glowing claws, leaving behind dark scorch marks and sparks flying everywhere. Sliding to a stop behind Mutitus in a crouch, Harry/Hedwig smirked internally as the monster swayed back and forth before finally falling to the ground. "Silver Owl, Moonlit Claw Slash!" With a massive explosion, Mutitus was destroyed and he/they rose from their crouch to face Lokar, still floating in the sky.

The massive head growled at them. "You are lucky I am limited in my abilities, little wizard, but rest assured, we will meet again, and you will fall." Without another word, Lokar began to glow before changing into an orb of light and shooting off into the sky. With Lokar's departure, the sky lightened to the bright blue it had been, though with the sun a few hours farther along in its daily journey.

Just as Harry/Hedwig started to relax, he/they felt the ground start shaking beneath them and spun back to face Angel Grove proper, only to see the welcome, if a bit late, forms of the Megazord and Dragonzord stomping his/their way as fast as they could go.

Smiling to him/their-self, Harry/Hedwig waved to the approaching Zords. "Hey there, guys. You're a bit late to the party, aren't you?"

-MR-

"And after Lokar left, you guys came running up and that was that." Harry finished telling the other Rangers the story of his first solo battle with a smile on his face. Mostly, he was just relieved that everything had worked out well. Marie had been saved, Alpha wasn't too terribly damaged (and boy had the robot worried about that when they were making their plans), Mutitus was destroyed, Lokar had left, and with the other Rangers free from the Island of Illusion, Rita's plan had been foiled once again.

All in all, a good day to be a Power Ranger.

"So you and Hedwig fused and were able to achieve your own fighting form? Morphinominal!" Billy seemed incredibly fascinated by the details behind Harry and Hedwig's battle. Throughout the conversation/debriefing, the Blue Ranger had questioned and queried about the smallest of details from the different sensations to the strange sense of detachment Harry had felt the entire time.

"It is indeed an achievement to be proud of, Harry. And you as well, Hedwig." Zordon spoke with pride in his voice. "You have stepped up when Rita's evil prevented the others from fighting by your side and served admirably to defend Angel Grove and the world as a whole from her forces. But that is no reason to become lax in your studies and practice. In time, the two of you will become more accustomed to your new battle mode, allowing you to use more of Harry's spells along with weapons provided by Hedwig's mechanical nature. With enough practice, the synch between you will become so complete that your will no longer even feel like two separate beings in one body, allowing your movements to become more fluid and swift without the aid of the Morphing Grid, making you even more effective in your battles."

Harry smiled at the floating head of his mentor. "That's good to hear, Zordon, and thank you for the compliment."

- _Yes, thank you Big-Head for the kind words about my Harry/Wizard and I._ \- Hedwig said with a quick bob of her head toward Zordon.

Harry chuckled even as he rolled his eyes at Hedwig's possessiveness. "Hedwig says thank you too."

-MR-

The next evening, Harry and the other Rangers were once again at the Youth Center, watching and cheering as Zack obliterated the competition in the dance contest he had previously been so worried about. It wasn't until after the contest ended and Zack was declared the clear winner (while Bulk sulked angrily in the corner, having been eliminated almost as soon as he began dancing), that the Rangers gathered at a table to drink some smoothies and relax for a bit.

"You see Zack," Trini started almost immediately after everyone sat down. "We told you that all you had to do was believe in yourself and you would do great."

"Yeah, thanks guys," Zack responded, his customary wide smile back on his face as he met the eyes of his fellow Rangers around the table. "I guess I don't know what came over me. I just got all kinds of worked up over the contest that I lost sight of myself."

Harry laughed from his seat between Zack and Trini as he clapped a hand onto Zack's shoulder. "Yeah, well don't let it happen again, alright?"

Zack joined in Harry's laughter while the others chuckled along with them.

"You know," Tommy started quietly once the laughter had died down, "I'm just really glad that Harry was able to hold down the fort while we were gone."

Kimberly snorted briefly, her face going bright red when she realized what she had done, but she soldiered on anyway. "Hold down the fort nothing, Harry saved the day on his own! That battle mode of Hedwig's is really cool."

Jason nodded slowly. "Yeah, I just want to let you know, Harry, that it's good to know that you'll be able to cover our backs in a situation like that. You saved the city, and all of our families too. Thanks, man."

Harry nodded, taking the implied olive branch. "You are very welcome, Jason. All of you are welcome. I'm just glad that Hedwig and I were able to stop them before things started to get bad. And I'm really glad we were able to save Marie from Goldar."

Sitting next to him, Trini perked up slightly before giggling and pointing past Harry. "Speaking of Marie…"

Turning to see what Trini was pointing at, Harry caught sight of the television Ernie kept on the counter at the snack bar. It was currently tuned to the local news and there was a very familiar girl on the screen.

The reporter on screen, an older looking brunette, was standing next to the slightly nervous looking child and speaking into a microphone. "And we're here now with Marie Higgens, a young girl who was saved earlier today by the mysterious Purple Ranger that has been sighted alongside the other six Power Rangers these last few months. Marie, what can you tell us about this mysterious Ranger?"

When the reporter held the microphone near Marie's mouth, it was easy to see that she was nearly scared stiff with nerves. All the same, Marie started speaking, recounting her day and her two separate encounters with the Magi Ranger. "Well, earlier I got lost and couldn't find my mommy. And then the big monster guy almost stepped on me, but the Purple Ranger saved me. He fixed my leg with magic and said he was the Magi Ranger. He said that he's a friend of the other Power Rangers and he beat up the gold monkey guy with the Green Ranger. Then he sent me to the Youth Center with his magic, but when I left to try and find my mommy again the monkey guy caught me. But Magi Ranger came and saved me again. He made it look like there were two of him and he tricked the monkey butt." At this point, Marie broke down into giggles and the smiling reporter brought the microphone back to her mouth.

"And you heard it here, folks. The new ally of the Power Rangers calls himself the Magi Ranger, and if his rescue of little Marie here and his later saving of the city are anything to go by, then I for one feel assured that we can sleep well knowing that he fights with our other heroes to protect us from the evil of Rita Repulsa."

Turning back to the smiling faces of the other Rangers, Harry couldn't help the blush that lit up his face. Even Jason was smirking with teasing good humor at the embarrassment Harry was feeling after Marie's interview.

Finally, after several long seconds, Trini grabbed her glass and lifted it up. "To the Magi Ranger. It's thanks to him that we still have a city today. May he continue to protect Angel Grove and everyone in it."

The fact that she said this loud enough for everyone nearby to hear it only increased Harry's embarrassment, but he was able to get his blush back under control to avoid rousing suspicion with everyone else in the room. Stuttering slightly, Harry raised his glass and repeated the toast along with the other Rangers and the half of the Youth Center who had heard Trini.

Once everyone had drank and Zack had gotten some ribbing in, Harry felt himself relax. He was finally feeling good about things for what was really the first time since he arrived in this dimension. There were going to be more battles in the future, of that he had no doubt, but he was now confident enough in his own abilities and in his place with the other Rangers that he no longer feared the outcome.

Let Rita send down her monsters. Let her come down to wreak havoc herself. Harry and the other Power Rangers would be here waiting for her, and they would beat her back every time.

-MR-

Thanks for reading, and don't forget to review,

Tenstar12


	27. Chapter 27

Magi Ranger

By: Tenstar12

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or Power Rangers.

 **Chapter 27, or, Harry and his Saving People Thing…**

"Aiya! Si-Aiya!"

Tommy jumped into the air, spinning as he did so and launching a tornado kick at Harry, which the wizard swiftly ducked under. Before Harry was able to return upright, Tommy had landed and recovered his stance, forcing Harry to deflect and dodge a few rapid fire punches.

In an attempt to shift the momentum, Harry deflected Tommy's next punch to the side with his left hand, spinning to the right as he did so and launching an elbow strike toward Tommy's side. The experienced fighter predicted the move, however, and was able to shift his arm down to block most of the blow before shifting his body weight and shoving Harry off balance. Taking advantage of this, Tommy went low, sweeping Harry's legs out from under him with one of his own, sending the Magi Ranger to the grass with a grunt and leaving him staring up at the sun shining in the clear sky over Angel Grove Park.

"Alright, alright," Harry panted, laying spread eagle on the ground where he had fallen. "I give."

Tommy chuckled as he relaxed from his fighting stance. "Hey, you're doing a whole lot better now, Harry. And there's no shame in tapping out when you're trying your best." The Green Ranger stepped closer, offering a hand to help Harry up, which was accepted after a moment to catch his breath.

Once he had regained his feet, Harry brushed himself off before responding. "Yeah, but I still don't come anywhere close to matching up to your skills. You are seriously good at this, Tommy."

Tommy chuckled while awkwardly scratching the back of his head. "Well, that's what happens when you've been practicing martial arts your whole life, I guess…"

Sensing Tommy's unease, Harry just nodded before gesturing toward their bags where they sat under a tree to one side. "I'm going to take a breather for a bit. You want me to grab your water for you?"

Tommy shook his head. "No, I'm still good to go for a bit longer. I'll join you in a minute though."

Nodding once again, Harry turned and walked the short distance to their bags. Reaching into his purple gym bag, Harry pulled out an equally purple water bottle and took a drink before sitting down on the grass. The bag and water bottle had been gifts from Tommy when the two had met for their first training session together, and while Harry may have cringed at the color (and especially at Tommy's knowing and rather teasing smirk when Harry first saw them), Harry accepted them in the spirit with which they were given.

It was the day after the battle with Mutitus that Tommy approached Harry about taking over his martial arts education. The Ranger had been teaching a few students on the side, mostly younger kids who weren't able to get into Jason's classes for one reason or another, but he was more than happy to offer to help his fellow Ranger out when he left Jason's class.

For his part, Harry had had no idea what he was going to do about learning Karate and so eagerly accepted Tommy's offer. Though there were some rough spots at first, Harry's begrudging acceptance of the purple colored gag gifts one of them, they had found they worked quite well together. Once Tommy was able to accurately judge where Harry was in his martial arts ability and how quickly he was able to pick things up with the Grid's help, the experienced martial artist was able to create an accelerated program for Harry that made his martial arts abilities increase noticeably almost immediately. While he wouldn't be able to earn any Karate belts with Tommy as his teacher and their accelerated "class", Harry wasn't really worried about that aspect of it and so the arrangement was as near perfect as could be for him.

Not having spent much one on one time with the Green Ranger since he had joined the team, Harry was quite happy to learn that Tommy was very easy to get along with. Having a rather laid back and friendly attitude made Tommy a very likable guy, though all that got put on the back burner when he got into a fight, be it a spar or a battle against evil.

Tommy took his Karate very seriously.

Even now, while Harry sat reminiscing in the shade, Tommy was going through a series of high speed katas that made it look like he was fighting a group of invisible enemies… And probably kicking their collective ass… The dedication of the Green Ranger to his art form really showed why he made such a powerful opponent while he was under Rita's control, and an equally powerful ally now.

Harry groaned as he replaced his water bottle into his bag and shifted to lie on his back. He hadn't been sleeping too well lately. That added onto the intense training session he had gone through had managed to make him more than a bit sore. Though the now daily exercise was far from the only contributing factor to his sleeping problems.

First off, it seemed that his body was finally starting to protest his months of sleeping on nothing but a cot in his room in the Command Center and cushioning charms could only go so far to help the situation. He knew that an ideal solution would be to actually find a more permanent place to live, preferably one with a real bed, or at least room for one. The room in the Command Center, while quite enough for him initially, really wasn't suitable as a long term living area. Not to mention that Harry couldn't actually remember the last time he had taken a shower somewhere other than the locker rooms at the Youth Center.

All this extra training with Tommy in the last week, while incredibly helpful and definitely essential, brought on an additional level of exhaustion that made his current sleeping arrangements much less acceptable. He would go to bed exhausted from his now daily training with Tommy, only to toss and turn throughout the night, unable to fully relax on the cot, and wake in the morning not feeling much more rested than he had been before sleeping.

This all brought him back to his need for his own place to stay, which then brought up the biggest obstacle to that goal: his lack of funds. While working at the Youth Center certainly made him enough to keep him fed with a bit left over, he wasn't making anywhere near enough money to be able to afford his own place to live while that was his only source of income. While he had disenchanted several of the Galleons by this point, he still had no clue as to how he could go about selling them. All he knew was that he had to be careful not to sell them all at once, as too much "new" gold hitting the market at the same time, and especially from the same place or seller, would raise far too many questions.

And Ernie, as awesome as the man was, was beginning to ask a few rather pointed questions as well. When he had gotten the job at the Youth Center, Harry had neglected to give Ernie a home address. Zordon and Alpha had helped him arrange a P.O. Box for any necessary mail, but Ernie was now getting suspicious about Harry's lack of a clear answer on the subject of where he was living. Ernie certainly meant well, Harry seriously doubted there was an unkind bone in the man's body, but it was getting to the point where Harry was running out of ways to deflect Ernie's questions. He really didn't want to have to memory charm the man as he had been so kind to him thus far, but it was starting to look like that was the only way Harry would be able to get him to ease off with his well-intended interrogations.

On top of this added stress and his new training with Tommy, Zordon had started Harry on yet another new topic in his training with the Power. Harry was now learning how to draw in and hold on to Power throughout the day. As opposed to when he collected Power and used it immediately, this technique called for Harry to store the Power in a sort of internal pocket, or at least that's how Zordon described it, Harry just likened it to his own Magical Core. The purpose of this exercise was to enable Harry to cast Grid-powered spells without always having to draw the Power up first. By keeping a charge available at all times, he could react faster, which was quite the necessary skill when one was fighting against the likes of Rita's monsters.

For now though, Harry couldn't really keep too much Power with him, barely enough for a weak forcewave. The feeling was similar to having eaten too much, a kind of internal pressure that he had to adapt to before he could increase the levels again, but Zordon had assured him that those who practiced this particular aspect of using the Power diligently were known to be able to fight for hours at a time without having to draw on more Power in the heat of battle.

And anything that meant Harry didn't have to do as much showboating as the Grid demanded for the use of its Power was good in his book.

But this new topic did add yet another level of mental stress and strain onto Harry's already full load, which certainly didn't help with his sleeping situation.

He really needed to get his own place… like REALLY needed to…

But he didn't have enough money to afford one just yet…

Harry was snapped out of his circuitous thinking when Tommy flopped down next to him with a sigh of satisfaction. Taking a drink from his own (green) water bottle, Tommy shot him a smile. "I meant what I said before, Harry. You really are doing very well."

Harry raised an eyebrow before speaking with humor in his voice. "Tommy, you know that I'm not one of the kids you've been teaching lately that needs constant reassurance, right? While I appreciate the thought, I'm not going to quit on you if I don't feel like I'm getting anywhere." Harry chuckled slightly when Tommy blushed in embarrassment before he continued. "Besides, I know I'm doing better than before. The faster pace we have going here works better for me since I not only want to learn this, but I kind of have to learn it as fast as I can. The speed the Grid lets me pick things up at isn't something Jason could take advantage of without leaving the rest of the class behind. I really appreciate your helping me with this."

Tommy waved a hand airily. "It's not a problem, Harry. I'm just happy to help out. It's the least I can do, really…" Tommy trailed off before taking another drink of water. The Green Ranger still had a rather large issue with what he had done while under Rita's control, but by now Harry knew better than to argue about it with him. So Harry just nodded and did his best to relax, focusing enough to circulate his magic and the Power through his body to help aid his control and slightly alleviate physical exhaustion, another exercise recommended by Zordon for his down time, but otherwise letting his mind drift again…

Only for the familiar six tone chime of their communicators to snap him out of it all at once.

Exchanging a brief glance with Tommy, Harry lifted his communicator and activated it. "Go ahead, Zordon."

"Harry," Zordon's said, his tone grave. "The other Rangers need the help of Tommy and yourself. They are in downtown Angel Grove battling a monster known as the Peckster. It is an avian monster similar to a woodpecker that has been using its powerful beak to deal a great amount of damage to the surrounding buildings. Despite their best efforts, the monster is too strong for the Rangers to handle themselves."

Harry and Tommy exchanged another quick glance before both nodded firmly. "Got it Zordon, we're on our way."

"Good luck, and may the Power protect you both."

Harry pulled his coin from his pocket and shifted it once more to wand form while Tommy fished his own morpher out of the depths of his green gym bag. Once he had retrieved it, Harry waved his wand, closing up both bags and hiding them under a temporary illusion before once more meeting Tommy's eyes.

"It's Morphin' Time." Tommy said with a firm nod before looking up and squaring his stance, staring firmly into the distance. Harry just shook his head slightly, chuckling a bit at the dramatics before whipping his wand through the air, drawing the symbol of the Deathly Hallows in a trail of fire.

"DRAGONZORD!" "MAGI RANGER, POWER UP!"

-MR-

Harry and Tommy appeared in twin beams of light in their signature colors atop one of the taller buildings in Angel Grove. When they materialized fully, both began looking around for a giant monster that was destroying buildings. What they got was a few random columns of smoke in the area, the distant noise of sirens, and a much closer explosion. It was the explosion that really caught their attention as it was accompanied by a shuddering in the building they were standing on.

Rushing to the edge and glancing over, Harry and Tommy could barely make out the tiny, multicolored dots of their allies accompanied by the various flashes of light that accompanied their battle with a sixth, fully unidentifiable dot that they assumed to be the Peckster. The dots were moving around in a kind of courtyard in front of the building they were standing on. "You know," Harry mused aloud. "When Zordon said the monster was destroying buildings, I kind of expected it to be giant already…"

Tommy nodded as they watched the battle far below. "I know what you mean, but it doesn't matter in the end. That thing is a threat to Angel Grove and we need to get down there and help out no matter what size it is."

Harry nodded slightly but before he could say anything else, Tommy leapt off the building with a fierce "Si-Aiya!"

Harry just sighed. "Yeah, I'm not doing that." Twisting in place and flexing his magic, Harry apparated to the bottom of the building, on the far side of the courtyard from where the battle was happening. The loud crack of his arrival echoed across the area and caught the attention of the Rangers and the misshapen bird monster they were fighting.

"Ah!" The creature shouted, its voice coming through surprisingly clear despite the fact that it was speaking with a jagged looking beak that extended more than a foot from its face. "You must be the Magi Ranger that Empress Rita told me about. I was wondering when you'd be showing up!"

The Peckster was indeed an avian monster as Zordon has said. Its body and arms were mostly yellow with a few blue portions here and there and its fingers were tipped in inch long, curved talons. Aside from the overly large beak, there were several ragged blue feathers coming from atop his head and around two large yellow circles on either side of its head that may have been eyes. Coming from behind its shoulders were two tattered looking, dark blue wings that didn't seem as if they had enough feathers to enable flight, though that didn't mean much with Rita's magic in play.

The monster was so focused on Harry that it completely missed the falling form of Tommy until he let out another loud "Aiya!" as he dropped onto the monster's head, the Dragon Dagger lashing out as he went and knocking the monster to the ground in a heap below him.

"Hey there, Bird Brain." Tommy said as he leapt off the downed monster and regrouped with the five core Rangers. "Thanks for breaking my fall."

Harry just shook his head as he jogged over to the group, keeping a wary eye on the shifting heap of monster before them.

"You little pest!" the Peckster near screeched as it climbed back to its feet. Other than a tiny scorch mark on the top of its beak where Tommy's Dragon Dagger had hit it, the monster seemed undamaged from Tommy's attack. "That hurt a little bit! I'm gonna make you pay for that!"

"Dammit!" Jason growled, clenching his fist as he moved up a half step. "What is it gonna take to take this guy down! Nothing we try works!"

"Keep your eye on the birdie!" the monster shouted, cackling as it charged toward the seven Rangers, flapping its arms like a pair of wings, which Harry found odd since the creature actually did have wings.

Before any of the Rangers could react, the monster was among them and lashing out with its clawed hands and beak in turn. While the claws knocked the Rangers aside as if they weren't there, it was the beak that Harry quickly learned was the more dangerous weapon. Tommy found it out first hand as the sharp tip of the monster's beak impacted squarely with the center of his golden shield and sent him flying backwards to crash into a building across the street.

"Aww…" The monster crooned while the Rangers regrouped nearby, save Tommy who was still struggling to his feet from where he had been knocked back. "Where did you go, Green Ranger? I wasn't done with you yet!"

The Peckster leapt into the air, its ragged wings unfolding and beating hard, changing its jump into flight and sending it hurtling through the air toward Tommy.

"Tommy!" Kimberly shouted, running toward him. "Heads up!"

"Huh?" Tommy glanced up from his crouched position, one hand clutching at the scorched center of his chest shield only to catch sight of the Peckster swooping toward him, beak first. "Woah!" At the last moment, Tommy dodged to the side, rolling away before springing unsteadily to his feet just as the monster's beak struck the side of the building.

The point of impact exploded.

Harry and the other Rangers found themselves knocked off their feet as the shockwave from the Peckster's attack washed over them. "Merlin's Balls!" Harry groaned as he clambered back to his feet. "What the heck was that?!"

"It happens every time the Peckster hits a building with its beak." Zack answered. "We have no idea why, but it's definitely not something we want to mess with."

"Yeah, I can imagine…" Harry mumbled as he and the others ran to Tommy's new position. The Green Ranger had been caught in the back by the shockwave and, as he was much closer, was once more sent flying. He had hit the ground hard and went rolling for several more yards before coming to a stop in the middle of the street.

"Oh man…" Tommy groaned as Kimberly and Jason helped him to his feet. "This really isn't my day, guys…"

"Aw, you moved!" Peckster taunted as it stepped out of the dust cloud caused by the explosion. "No matter, that just means I can have some more fun with you before I finish you off!" Leaping into the air once more, the monster's wings spread out and began beating, turning it into an organic missile once more.

"Alright," Harry said, his face set in a scowl under his helmet as he summoned the Magi Staff and stepped forward. "Let's so how you handle this. _Impedimenta!_ "

He expended his pool of Grid Power to cast the spell, giving it more force than normal, and it was probably good he had because of the speed the Peckster was traveling at. As it was, the monster slowed to a stop a mere five feet from where Harry stood at the front of the group of Rangers.

"What?!" the monster began screaming, flailing its arms and legs as it was held in the spell's grasp. "What's going on? What did you do to me?"

Nodding to himself, Harry spun his staff once before slashing it downward sharply. "And now let's clip those wings of yours. _Diffindo!_ "

The severing charm lashed out, impacting the monster and slicing off the top half of its right wing just before the Impediment Jinx faded, dropping the Peckster to the pavement on its face.

Amusingly enough, the monster's beak split the ground when it hit, driving it into the paved surface and leaving a hole behind when the bird monster pushed itself up as the Rangers backed away to get a bit of distance. "No! You puny human! I'll destroy you for that!"

"Nice job, Harry." Jason half-shouted. "Now let's see how this guy fights on our terms!"

"Right!" the other four core Rangers chanted as they all drew their blade blasters and charged the land-bound monster. Harry stood back with the still recovering Tommy and watched the ensuing melee. He knew that even with his recent improvement, he would still be more of a handicap in the battle. Even still, he began spinning his staff, storing what Power he could and channeling the rest into his weapon, waiting for the right moment to give the other Rangers the advantage.

The opportunity came when the Peckster, still dominating the close range battles despite its injury, knocked Jason away once again, making it the only participant in that battle that was still standing. Feeling a bit of Grid influenced levity come over him, Harry thrust his staff forward with a grunt, releasing the energy within in the form of a Levin Bolt. "Don't forget about me, Seed Breath!"

As the Grid Powered lightning bolt raked across the bird monster and knocked it to the ground even as it continued to deal damage, Harry couldn't help but muse. Seed Breath? Seriously? The Grid takes over for an instant to make him taunt the monster for its own satisfaction and the best it can come up with is Seed Breath? Harry rolled his eyes and gave an internal sigh of exasperation as he felt his collected Power drain away, freeing the monster from his attack.

As the other Rangers formed up around Harry, the Peckster climbed to its feet again. The monster was now looking rather worse for wear. While it continued to laugh as if everything it saw was incredibly hilarious, its entire body was crisscrossed with scorch mark trails from Harry's attack. Add that in with the severed wing and things were certainly looking up for the Rangers in this battle.

"Don't you think I'm done just yet, Rangers!" the Peckster taunted, shaking a single finger at them on one of its hands. "This battle is far from over!" The Peckster flung its arms out to the sides, both of its wings stretching out again as it did so. Including its formerly severed right wing.

"What the…" Zack gasped while the other Rangers made similar noises of disbelief.

"The monster must have an advanced form of regeneration!" Billy deduced mere moments later.

"Now, how about a taste of my toxic tornado!" the Peckster squawked before it began flapping its wings fiercely, kicking up a strong wind that soon had all seven Rangers leaning forward and straining to avoid losing ground.

Harry himself had planted the butt of his staff into the pavement with a burst of Grid enhanced strength and was clinging to it with his left hand while his right kept a firm grip on the still winded Tommy's. The two Rangers weathered the windstorm only slightly better than the others who were all pushed back several feet. But that only meant that they were the first to get hit when the Peckster opened its beak wide, revealing multiple spines nestled in the back of its throat that then shot forward like rockets.

Harry felt the first spine hit him in his left shoulder, the sudden shock of the impact and bright flash of sparks making him instinctively release his grip on the Magi Staff and sending both he and Tommy flipping end over end while the spines continued peppering them. The other Rangers went through similar reactions, all of them losing their footing when the spines hit them and getting caught up in the wind as the attacks continued. The Rangers' flights were short, however, as they all slammed into an office building behind them, cracking the ground floor windows when they hit, and fell to the sidewalk when the wind died down soon after.

Rising slowly, Harry wearily summoned the Magi Staff to his hand wandlessly before helping Tommy up as best he could. The other Rangers all copied his motions, standing with halting motions as various parts of their bodies complained at their movement. None of them really felt much pain from the attacks as the suits absorbed nearly all of the real damage, but the impacts still left them feeling a bit tender, even if it was only psychological as if they felt they _should_ be hurt even if they really weren't.

"Uhhh…" Kimberly moaned as she stood, holding onto her head as she did. "Did anybody get the number of that bus…?"

"No bus, just the Peckster!" The monster laughed, nearly skipping as it moved closer to them. "Here, you all seemed to enjoy the last one so much, why don't you have another?"

As the monster opened its beak wide again, Jason was the first to react. "Look out!" he shouted, grabbing ahold of a still dazed Kimberly and Billy and diving to the side with them. "It's firing again!"

Harry managed to dive the other way himself, wandlessly summoning Tommy, Zack, and Trini as he went and leaving the four in a massive heap as the Peckster's spines impacted and exploded with the side of the building accompanied by the sound of breaking glass as the window's finally shattered.

As the dust around them settled slightly, Harry found himself on his back with a weight on his chest. Blinking beneath his helmet, Harry found himself staring into Trini's visor. "Well," Harry quipped, smirking slightly despite the tense situation. "Fancy meeting you here."

Once again, Harry imagined he could almost feel Trini's blush through her helmet as she scrambled off of him, pausing only to help Zack and Tommy up while Harry climbed to his feet once more with the support of the Magi Staff. "You know," he mused, looking to the other three Rangers to see they were climbing to their feet as well. "I'm starting to get sick of using this thing as a crutch more than a weapon lately…"

"Yeah, I know what you mean…" Zack said as he clutched at a scorch mark low on his chest with his left hand. "But at least we know why nothing we did earlier seemed to damage this thing. It's healing faster than we can hurt it."

"And that beak it has packs a punch too," Tommy groaned, finally standing straight again. "I can almost still feel it, and it hit directly on my shield."

Giving off a brief sigh, Harry turned back to where the Peckster was still standing, looking like it was dancing in place as it taunted them. "My guess is we'll have to hit it with everything we have all at once. Deal enough damage all at one time to destroy it as opposed to wearing it down over time."

"Right!" the three Rangers chanted as one, making Harry roll his eyes internally.

"Hey, I have a new idea!" the monster shouted out once more as it stopped dancing and looked back and forth between the two groups of Rangers. "Let's try a new game!" With that said, the monster opened its beak once again and fired yet another volley of spines, but these weren't aimed at the Rangers. These spines impacted the ground in front of them and the building behind them, throwing up a cloud of dust and breaking yet more glass all up the side of the building as they exploded, once more blocking their view of the monster.

The bird's laughter echoed around them even as Harry summoned a burst of wind to help clear the air. "Catch me if you can, Rangers!"

"Over there!" Kimberly's shouted, a quick glance showed her pointing up into the air and, following her gesture, Harry spotted the monster flying away from them.

"Come on, guys!" Jason commanded, already running after the Peckster. "We can't let him get away!"

Harry watched as the six Rangers took off on foot and was about to apparate to a rooftop to help direct them when he heard a scream from above. "PLEASE DON'T LEAVE! HELP ME!"

Looking up, Harry saw a sight that made his eyes widen. Almost directly above him was a figure, a woman based on the voice, hanging outside a window on the fourth floor. She was desperately clinging to a ledge outside the broken window, begging and screaming for help. Harry took one last quick glance toward the other Rangers who were now disappearing around the side of another building in the pursuit of the monster.

For Harry, there wasn't even a choice to be made.

Putting his faith in the Grid to help guide him and letting the Power flow through him, Harry leapt straight up. In mere moments, he was even with the woman and landed lightly on the ledge she was clinging to, now with wide eyes at his stunt. Acting quickly, Harry dismissed his staff and cast a sticking charm on his own boots to provide leverage before kneeling down and grabbing onto the woman's forearms. With a simple heave, he pulled her up onto the ledge with him as if she weighed nothing.

The woman almost immediately wrapped her arms around him, clinging with a desperate strength and constantly crying out her thanks and praises. For his part, Harry stayed focused as best he could. A quick glance through the broken window showed a fire burning fiercely, meaning he'd have to take her back down with him.

Nodding to himself, Harry shifted his grip on the woman, scooping her up into a bridal carry before he hopped off the ledge. The woman only had a moment to scream during their freefall before they hit the ground, Harry's light crouch and a short jolt the only real sign that they'd landed.

Sometimes he really liked having the Grid Power on his side.

"Oh thank you, thank you, thank you…" the woman was mumbling even as Harry set her feet on the sidewalk, her face still buried in his vest/cloak as she cried what he could only assume were tears of relief. Suddenly, she stiffened before looking up at his visor. "But wait! Dianna is still in there!"

Harry gave a short start. "Dianna? You mean someone is still in the building?"

The woman nodded frantically. "Yes, Dianna, she's one of my coworkers. We were putting in some extra hours when the battle started. The first time the building was hit the floor below her collapsed and she fell. I went to the window to try and see what was going on when the next blast broke the glass and I fell out! Please, you have to save her!"

Harry cursed internally even as he extricated himself from the woman's grip. "Get some distance just in case. We don't want you getting hurt any more, yeah?"

After the woman nodded, tears still streaking down her face, Harry once more leapt into the air, coming to a rest on the ledge outside the broken window and climbing through it into the still burning building. Thinking fast, Harry cast a detection charm. Luckily enough, the spell told him that there was only one other person in the building. "Well," he mumbled, squinting to try and see through the somewhat smoky air. "That makes my job a bit easier at least.

From what he could tell, it was an office building, or at least he assumed this floor was allocated for such a purpose as he made out what looked like several cubicles all across the large room he was in. It didn't take Harry much longer to find the collapsed floor either. Around twenty feet away from the broken window, the floor simply disappeared. From the edge of the hole to the far wall of the room where a small ridge stayed attached, most likely due to its proximity to the far wall. Moving to the edge of the hole, Harry cast the detection charm once again, the results telling him that the woman was somewhere below him, rather far down based on the readings and seeing as how the collapse appeared to have gone all the way down to the ground floor, but was still alive.

With a nod to himself, Harry turned back to the window and took off at a run. Leaping out the window, Harry flipped once in midair before landing in a crouch and turning to face the building again, intending to head back in through the broken first floor windows to try and get to the trapped worker. The only problem was that there was now a fire truck parked between him and the building. He was quite taken aback by this since he hadn't even heard a siren or anything while he was searching the building.

"Woah there, buddy!" one fireman said as Harry landed near him. "What's the hurry?"

Harry stared blankly at the man, almost wishing he could see the look of disbelief on his face through his helmet. Finally, Harry found the words to speak. "There's still someone trapped inside, the building is burning, and you're asking me what my hurry is? What the hell is your problem?"

The man looked dumbfounded for a moment before responding. "So you guys really don't do it on purpose? You really don't know about it at all?"

Harry nearly snapped at the man, but managed to calm himself at the last second. "What are you talking about?"

The man seemed to shift uneasily for a second before looking firmly into Harry's visor. "Nobody ever gets hurt during one of you Power Rangers' battles with Rita's monsters. It's strange really. We've found people trapped in cars, surrounded by a perfect circle of fire, or in a pocket underneath a pile of rubble like I bet we'll find the person trapped in here, but nobody ever even has so much as a scratch on them when we get to them."

Harry paused. That… that didn't make any sense at all. Shaking himself, Harry stepped around the man and made to move around the fire truck to continue on his self-given mission. "You'll have to excuse me if I don't take your word for it."

Harry cleared the truck and was about to jump through the broken window when the same fireman grabbed his forearm. "I can't let you go in there, pal. Power Ranger or no, the building isn't safe just yet. And especially not while the fire is still burning."

Harry looked around and saw that there was only the one fire truck on the scene and none of the four firefighters he could see seemed to be rushing to get any hoses hooked up. In fact, two of them seemed to be chatting with the woman he had saved from the ledge earlier. Rounding on the man who still held his arm, Harry glared. "My suit will protect me from anything the fire may be able to do, and besides, none of you seem like you can be bothered to take care of the fire just now."

The man shrugged, shifting uneasily. "They've always burned out themselves before we really got set up in the past, and like I said, nobody ever got hurt, even when everything we know says they should have, so it's just easier to wait them out and then move in."

Harry just stared at him for a moment. "And the fact that you feel like that is acceptable disgusts me. If there's someone trapped in there then it's your duty to do whatever is within your power to save them, even if you don't think they'll be hurt in the end." With a jerk of his arm, Harry freed himself from the fireman's slackened grip and jumped through the broken first floor windows.

Almost immediately, Harry caught sight of the results of the collapse in the form of a pile of debris that stretched up higher than the broken ceiling. He spotted several desks, cubicle walls, and an untold amount of concrete, metal, and other materials from the floors/ceilings that had fallen when that section gave way, and all that was flammable was merrily burning away.

"Alright," Harry mumbled. His first thought was to start vanishing whatever was burning to clear the area, but on a second glance he decided that he couldn't risk that without knowing how rest of the building would react if he vanished the wrong thing. He definitely wouldn't want to vanish something important and bring the whole building down on himself. With a sigh he began drawing up the Power from within him. "We'll do it the long way then…" Pooling magic and Power in his hands, Harry thrust his arms forward. " _Aguamenti!_ " a stream of water shot forth from each of his gloved palms and he aimed each one toward the fires closest to him, intending to clear a path to the debris pile. Even if his suit would protect him from the fire, that didn't mean that it wouldn't hurt the trapped woman on their way out.

After a few minutes of dousing the flames with little result, Harry heard a scuffle behind him just before a voice sounded out. "Well, that's handy…" Harry glanced back over his shoulder to see the fireman climbing through the broken window and hauling a fire hose with him. Almost immediately, the man surveyed the damage before stepping up next to Harry. "No, no, you have to aim lower. Hit what the fire is burning with the water or else you'll never put it out. You have to soak down the fuel, you see…"

Taking the advice as it was intended, Harry lowered his arms slightly and watched as the fire guttered and spat almost immediately, fighting a losing battle against its elemental opposite before finally going out and letting Harry move on to the next spot. The two figures continued like that for several minutes, Harry spraying down various 'hot spots' as directed by the professional while the other three fireman worked with the hose behind them to touch things up. Finally, they reached the pile of rubble and Harry let his water conjuring spell stop before casting the detection charm again.

"Alright, my spell tells me that there is one person buried about ten feet in front of us. She's still alive, but I don't have the slightest idea as to how we can get her out of there."

The man paused in thought for a moment, eyeing the smoking material in front of them critically. Finally, he sighed. "Chances are that if we dig in too quickly the rest of the pile will just shift and fill back in whatever progress we make. Our only real option is to move this stuff as safely as we can and hope to get to her before things get worse…"

Just then the ground below them shook violently. Harry glanced around quickly before realizing that the shaking wasn't just their building, it was everything. "Somehow I think things just got worse. Feels like Rita grew her monster…"

The fireman cursed before stepping forward immediately and starting to throw debris away in an attempt to get to the trapped person beneath. Sighing to himself at the desperation the man was showing, Harry summoned his staff and charged it with Power. "It might be easier if I do this…"

When the fireman glanced back to see the Ranger with his glowing staff, he stepped to one side, wide eyed as Harry swished his staff and then flicked it. " _Wingardium Leviosa…_ " Harry felt his magic flow out of the Magi Staff, penetrating through the pile of debris and finding the trapped woman. He was more than a little confused to find that she was indeed in a small, almost perfectly circular pocket in the midst of the collapse, but pushed that aside to let his magic flow around the perimeter of the area and sink several feet beyond it on all sides.

"Alright," Harry said, concentrating on his magic as best he could. "In a moment, I'm going to lift this stuff up magically. I'm gonna need you to grab the woman as soon as you feel you can fit through, alright? I don't know how long I'll be able to hold up this much stuff."

Harry watched as the man's wide eyes narrowed with steely resolve before he nodded firmly. Nodding back, Harry let the spell take effect and raised the end of his staff, massive amounts of debris rising with it. The pile shifted with each inch that the portion affected by Harry's magic rose and the wizard knew that it probably wasn't the most stable or safest idea he had ever had. That opinion only grew when the earth shook again below them, probably from a giant footstep from the ongoing battle, and as his own footing shifted, the floating debris shifted as well, sending more of the excess sliding to the floor.

Almost as soon as the pile was around two feet off the ground, the fireman dove for the opening, crawling on his belly until there was enough room for him to rise to his knees, and then to a crouch. Harry was feeling the strain. He had never really tried to lift up so much at once before, but his determination held strong. His "Saving People Thing" demanded no less.

Finally, after a minute or so that seemed to last much longer, Harry heard a shocked gasp and some muffled words coming from the hole. Not long after, a head of dirty, blonde hair came crawling out of the passage quickly followed by the rest of the woman in a desperate scramble to freedom. Right on her heels came the fireman and as soon as he was clear, Harry let the spell end, causing the debris to drop and kick up a pile of dust accompanied by a few sparks and embers.

"Alright, Magi Ranger," the fireman said. "If there's nobody else in here, we should pull back. The fire is dying off on its own already, like I mentioned earlier, but it's never good to be in a building that may be structurally unsound while the whole city is shaking this much."

Nodding even as his own footing shifted as a result of the aforementioned shaking, Harry turned and followed the fireman back to the broken window. The other members of his crew had already pulled back, presumably with the woman they had rescued, and so Harry himself was the last one to hop out of the broken window and into pandemonium.

Where before there had been only one fire truck, there were now four, the associated firefighters spraying into the upper windows of the building he had just left in an attempt to help finish off the fire, and accompanying them were a pair of ambulances and a news van from one of Angel Grove's local news stations.

As soon as they came out of the window, a cheer went up from a crowd of civilians who were standing across the street. There looked to be several dozen of them just standing there watching and waiting for the rescue in progress to finish up, apparently unconcerned with the giant monster battle happening nearby.

Before he could do anything else, Harry heard his communicator go off. "Magi Ranger," Zordon's voice called out. "The other Rangers need help. I know you are occupied at the moment and are unable to assist directly, but if you call your Zord it should help turn the tides of battle."

Nodding to himself, Harry brought his communicator up. "Roger that, Zordon." Lowering his arm, and more than a little aware of the watching crowd, Harry swapped his staff into his left hand and threw his right arm up into the air, letting out a pulse of magic. "I call upon the Silver Owl Zord!"

With a familiar screech, accompanied this time by the enthusiastic cheering from the watching crowd, Hedwig appeared in the sky in her giant Zord form. – _Harry/Wizard?_ \- the bird queried, her confusion coming across clear through their mental connection since he didn't call her by name.

-You go ahead and help the others, Hedwig.- Harry sent her mentally as he began walking toward the crowd. –I have to stay and deal with these people for a moment. I have no clue why they think it's a good idea to stick around like this, but you can bet I'm going to find out. Now go and show that walking feather duster what a real bird can do.-

Harry could almost feel Hedwig's smirk. – _Very well Harry/Wizard. Be careful with the sheep-people._ -

Harry rolled his eyes as Hedwig flapped her wings a few times before firing up her rockets with a screech and shooting off toward the battle to the accompaniment of even more cheers. In his mind's eye Harry could almost see the moment she made her first impact with the Peckster, mostly helped by the fact that the ground shook rather badly when it happened.

As Harry shifted as best he could to remain upright, someone else wasn't as capable and crashed into him, knocking them both to the ground. Harry glanced down toward his chest to see the same reporter who had interviewed Marie after the Mutitus battle lying on him with a dazed look on her face.

"Er…" Harry found himself unable to speak, but luckily enough he didn't have to. The simple noise was enough for the reporter to snap out of her daze and realize where she was and what had happened. With a bright blush, the woman climbed off of him almost before Harry even realized it and began dusting herself off. As Harry too regained his feet, he saw her glance to the side before looking back at him. Harry followed her look to see a camera man standing nearby, the device pointing toward them. Further musing was cut off as the woman shoved a microphone in front of his helmet.

"Lauren McAlistor, Channel 3 News. Magi Ranger, can you tell me what happened here today?"

Harry just blinked. Finally, as the ground shook again, he snapped out of his stupor enough to give a response. "Really?" He said, incredulously. "You really think that this is the best time for this to happen? Right now? When the other Power Rangers are fighting against the monster that caused this damage and made the rescue necessary? You think now is the right time to try and get an interview from me?"

The woman blushed again, but kept the microphone held out. Harry just sighed. "Ma'am, I apologize if I offend you, but are you completely mental?"

The reporter recoiled slightly, drawing the microphone back to herself before speaking. "Well… it's just that you Power Rangers always disappear after each battle before anyone can get to you, so I thought…"

"You thought that you'd interrupt me before I could go join my teammates in the fight to defend the city? You thought you'd keep me from the fight so you could ask a few questions?" Harry shook his head. "Ma'am, I appreciate your dedication to your work, but I really think that you should-"

Harry's words were cut off by the sound of an explosion happening overhead. He whipped his head up in time to see several blurred objects strike the top of the building that had already suffered so much damage in the battle today and explode violently enough to dislodge a large section of the wall. In the back of his mind, Harry noted that the flying objects had most likely been some of the Peckster's exploding spines, but that thought was set aside by firm resolve as he whipped his staff around and snagged the falling chunk of building in a levitation charm, bringing it to a stop mere feet before it would have crushed himself, the reporter and her cameraman, the firemen, and several of the nearby pedestrians.

Panting slightly as he floated the chunk of brick and metal a bit higher, Harry turned his attention back to the now very pale reporter. "I think that you, and all the civilians over there, need to clear off. Seek shelter until the battle ends."

The woman could only nod shakily before turning and near-sprinting back to her news van with the cameraman right on her heels. It only took a glance to the side to see the people who had heard his comment spreading the word frantically as the crowd broke up.

"Wow…" Harry turned the other way to see the same fireman from before walking up next to him, looking up at the chunk of building still floating overhead. "It's a really good thing you were here today…"

Harry merely grunted in acknowledgement before an idea struck him. "Tell me, is this piece of building important for anything? I mean is it needed to help put the building back together or anything? I'm afraid I don't know much about construction, so…"

The fireman looked at him confused for a moment before responding. "Ah… no, not really. Normally a chunk that size would have broken apart when it hit the ground. Even now, they'll probably just end up shipping that chunk out and using all new materials to repair the building. It really can't be put back in place or anything. Probably wouldn't be very structurally sound even if we could get it back up there."

Harry shrugged. "Well, technically I could float it back up there and then repair it good as new with magic, but I had a thought that maybe we should give this chunk of stone back to the monster who tried to give it to us. It's only fair, right?"

The man's confused look persisted for a few seconds until understanding dawned and the look was replaced by a smirk. Nodding, the fireman glanced up at the large chunk of stone. "Yes, I do believe that that would be quite thoughtful…"

Harry smirked under his helmet before levitating the floating stone higher and higher until it passed beyond the tops of the nearby buildings. –Hedwig,- he sent. –I have something that I would like you to return to the Peckster for me. Do you think you're up for a delivery?-

He could feel Hedwig's amusement when she realized his plan. – _Of course, Harry/Wizard. I shall deliver this package as quickly as possible._ -

Hedwig made a wide turn around the area before snatching the chunk of stone out of the air. The section of building was almost a quarter her size, but she managed to carry it all the same with the help of her rocket boosters.

Before Harry could do anything else, the fireman cleared his throat, drawing Harry's attention once more. "Look, Magi Ranger… I just wanted to apologize." The man looked rather uncomfortable with his apology, but kept going nonetheless. "You were right. We've been taking this strange protection for granted, but no more. It's our job to save the people in this city when things go wrong. Now we know we can't do much against all those monsters, that's your guys' job, but we can do what we need to to clean up afterwards. I just wanted to apologize to you for what I said and did, or rather what I wasn't doing. It won't happen again."

Nodding once more to the fireman, resting a hand on his shoulder. "I know you didn't mean any harm by it, but whatever it is that's protecting people, you can't lean on it if you don't understand it. And even if you did understand it, it's no excuse to let people suffer while trapped like what happened today. I know you won't let it happen again though, and I'm counting on you to spread the word. We'll handle Rita, but the emergency service workers of Angel Grove still need to step up your own games as best you can."

Seeing the man taking his message to heart, Harry twisted in place, apparating to the top of another building so that he could see the ongoing battle.

As it turned out, the fight was only a few blocks away, which explained the frequency and intensity of the shaking. Harry immediately recognized the Dragonzord in Battle Mode fighting alongside the Tyrannosaurus Rex Dinozord against the Peckster. The monster was still covered in the scorch trails from Harry's earlier Levin Bolt, but had very few damage marks otherwise. In the meantime, the two Zords were covered in scorch marks and the Rex seemed to be having trouble moving very well, resulting in it staying out of the battle as best it could.

And then in swooped Hedwig, smashing the chunk of building over the back of the Peckster's head and knocking it to the ground, driving its beak into the earth once again.

"WHAT IN THE WORLD WAS THAT?!" The monster screeched after freeing itself from the ground and clambering back to its feet. Any further squawking was cut off as the monster found the Dragonzord's spear waiting for it and drilling a large hole through its chest.

"… Oh…" the monster mumbled before falling back to the ground once more and exploding while the Dragonzord posed dramatically nearby.

Harry just chuckled before teleporting back to the Command Center. Satisfied in a job well done.

-MR-

Harry's satisfaction lasted for all of three minutes. That was about how long it took for the other Rangers to teleport in and for Harry to see their grim and somewhat irritated looking faces.

"Alright," Harry sighed. "What's going on?"

Predictably, it was Jason who stepped up to speak for the other five. "Where did you go, Harry?"

Harry was confused and voiced such. "What do you mean?"

Jason growled. "I mean where were you during the battle? You vanished just before the monster grew and didn't show up again until the very end. We nearly got creamed out there and could have really used your help! If you hadn't vanished, we might have been able to beat that thing before Rita grew it!"

Harry narrowed his eyes at the Red Ranger. "Well, you know, I would have been there right next to you guys if I hadn't been forced to save a couple of civilians from a burning office building that was damaged during the battle. I would have been right behind you, except one of them nearly fell from a fourth story window just as the monster flew away after it grew back its wing!"

All of the Rangers but Jason recoiled slightly, understanding now dawning in their eyes at Harry's explanation. Jason's eyes narrowed a bit, but his aggressive stance remained unchanged. Harry soldiered on. "And did you guys know that, according to the fireman I spoke with, none of the rescue teams in the city have been actually putting forward any effort in trying to save people who are caught in the aftermath of our battles lately? Yeah, apparently they're convinced that nobody ever gets hurt so they can take it easy until they feel like going in after them. The fireman I talked to said that they were going to wait until the fire burned itself out before trying to go in and save a person that had been trapped in a building collapse!"

Zordon cut across Harry's rant even as the Ranger's faces all took on looks of shock and disbelief. "In point of fact, Harry, those people were never in any true danger."

Harry rounded on the elder wizard in a heartbeat, his face showing his outrage. "You'll have to forgive me for disagreeing, Zordon, but I certainly consider being trapped in a potentially unstable, partially collapsed, burning building to be quite dangerous."

Zordon merely sighed before firming up his face. "It appears I have some explaining to do, Rangers. But first, let me ask you all a question. Have you ever wondered why it is that Rita only attacks here, in Angel Grove?"

The Rangers were taken aback by this seemingly random tangent, but exchanged looks for several moments until Trini finally spoke up. "I… I have wondered about that a few times, but never really said anything."

"Yeah," Zack said, scuffing one shoe on the floor awkwardly. "I mean, if Rita is trying to take over the world, why would she attack here all the time? Wouldn't she be better off going after the capital or something? Bigger targets and all that…"

Harry saw the point Zack was trying to make and realized it did make sense. Why was Rita only attacking Angel Grove?

Zordon was quick to provide the answer. "The reason behind her targeting only this city is also the reason why those people were never in any danger, Harry. Every twenty thousand years, the Morphing Grid shifts its focal points. These focal points are locations where the Grid's Power can most easily be accessed and are always the locations of fierce battles between good and evil as they try to claim or protect them."

"And let me guess," Harry drawled, sighing heavily. "Angel Grove is one of these Focal Points?"

Zordon bobbed his head in a nod. "Indeed it is so, Harry. This is why Rita attacks here constantly. She is attempting to establish her own control over the area, mostly by driving my own presence out, so that she may tap directly into the Grid's Power, greatly increasing her own strength and all but ensuring her takeover of the Earth."

"So how long exactly has this focal point been here?" Kimberly asked.

"It sometimes takes thousands of years for a focal point to be discovered once they have moved. It is believed that the one under angel grove was here for nearly five thousand years before it was discovered. It was only shortly after Rita and I arrived here to begin our battle that we were each trapped by the other, myself in the time warp and Rita in the space dumpster. For the ten thousand years I have been trapped, Alpha 5 has helped me set up this Command Center and cement the hold I have over this focal point to protect it from the forces of evil."

Zordon turned his attention to Harry. "The fireman you spoke with referred to no one ever being injured in the aftermath of the battles with Rita. This is because the Grid actively protects all those in and around its focal points that are not directly involved in the battles for control over it. In addition, since this area falls under the banner of the forces of good, an attitude of kindness and helpfulness pervades all those within Angel Grove as well. This is also why there is so little actual crime in this city. Most people who live here cannot even think such negative thoughts that would lead to criminal behavior, and those who do are really quite dark in their core."

Zack snorted suddenly, choking back laughter. Upon seeing everyone's eyes on him, he offered an explanation. "I'm just picturing Bulk and Skull as being bad guys. Those two and their little gang are really the only ones who can even come close to that description that I know of."

Zordon nodded once again. "Indeed, Zack. In truth, Bulk, Skull, and their group of friends and associates would have been quite the threat to anyone and everyone around them were it not for the positive influence of the Grid over them. It is slowly changing their nature, which is why they seem as inept and bumbling as they are, but were it not for that, there is no telling how they would have turned out."

Harry let his mind wander to the thought of a truly bad Bulk and Skull, but had a great deal of difficulty imagining it. He had seen some of how bad a bully could be through his childhood with the Dursleys, particularly Dudley, but he still had problems picturing Bulk as cruel and vindictive.

Shaking himself from his thoughts, Harry returned his attention to Zordon. "But in the end, Zordon, no matter what protections there are for these people, it only stops them from being injured or killed. Those firemen were willing to wait for who knows how long before even getting started on trying to get that woman out of the building. I just couldn't leave her there once I was told."

He turned back toward the still grumpy Jason. "I will admit that I should have told you all where I was and what I was doing. It was wrong of me to just vanish in the middle of a battle like that and I will promise to do my best to avoid that in the future, but I won't stand by and let anyone suffer if there is something I can do about it. It's just not in my nature."

Jason glanced around at the other Rangers, looking for the support he had once had that now seemed to be wavering. In a last attempt to make his point, he turned back to Harry again. "Look, Zordon just told us that those people were in no danger, Harry. You didn't need to go after them today and you won't need to in the future. They're safe until the rescue workers can reach them."

Harry scowled. "And I am going to do whatever I can to get them out quicker if I can. That woman today was in an area she couldn't even sit up straight in. Trapped under who knows how much debris and unable to escape on her own. That kind of thing gets to a person. I will not let anyone suffer if I can help it. And if you think you can tell me not to, well, you're going to be very disappointed."

Billy stepped up and placed a hand on Jason's shoulder. "If nothing else, Jason, Harry's actions would prevent a great deal of psychological stress and potential damage to those he rescues."

"Yeah man," Zack followed up. "And he did promise not to run off on us again like he did today."

"And I trust him to not run off in the middle of a battle if we really need his help." Tommy said, smiling at Harry from behind the Red Ranger. "If we really need him, he will be there for us. Just like he came through with Hedwig and that distraction today that let us finish off that bird brain for good."

Jason said nothing for a bit. His thoughts clearly racing as he stood with his eyes closed. Finally, he sighed and opened them again. "You're right. You're all right. I'm sorry for flying off the handle like that, Harry. We… I thought you had just run off on us but you had a very good reason for doing it." Jason offered a hand to Harry which the wizard took, giving it a firm shake before releasing it again.

"No worries, Jason." Harry gave a slightly tense smile. "Just keep in mind that I am known for being rather impulsive in my old world. Hermione once told me that I have a 'Saving People Thing,' and this is just one example of it. But I will promise that I'll let you all know if I feel the need to run off again. And, as Tommy said, I won't do it if I'm really needed in battle."

Jason nodded. "That'll be good enough for me."

-MR-

It was a few hours later that Harry and the Rangers were all at the Youth Center. Harry had just finished up a short shift behind the snack bar and was now sitting at a table, petting Hedwig and watching Jason, Tommy, Billy, and Zack take turns sparring on one of the mats while Kimberly and Trini did some gymnastics work on another.

Hedwig had her eyes mostly closed in contentment from Harry's ministrations while the Magi Ranger let his thoughts once more wander over his problems. On top of his housing situation, his money situation, his every growing physical exhaustion, and the apparently not-quite-all-gone-but-much-reduced animosity Jason felt for him, he now had the thought of keeping everyone else in the city safe during Ranger battles. And unlike in his last world where he really couldn't be held responsible for the safety of everyone fighting against Voldemort, here in this dimension as a Power Ranger he really _was_ responsible in a roundabout way…

It was really becoming too much to handle if he was honest.

Suddenly, Hedwig's eyes opened fully and she turned her head to look over his shoulder. – _Harry/Wizard, Big Not-Cousin is approaching from behind… with a net. Skinny Not-Cousin is behind him with another one._ -

Harry sighed internally. "Bulk, Skull, what exactly are you guys trying to do?"

He heard a scuffle behind him and turned to see what was going on as people around him started laughing. It seemed as though Bulk and Skull had been startled by Harry's sudden question and had somehow managed to trip each other up in such a way that they ended up sitting on the ground with the pair of nets they each held ending up around the other's head.

"How did you know we were here?" Bulk demanded as he struggled up off the ground, nearly ripping the net off of his head.

Harry shrugged. "Hedwig reacted and I took a shot in the dark."

Bulk seemed to think about it for a second before his eyes widened. "You can talk to your owl?!"

Harry, internally panicking, rolled his eyes. "No, Bulk, but anyone who is used to an animal can read certain cues about them. And as I know you two are the only ones who might try and sneak up behind me like that…" He shrugged again. "Anyway, what exactly did you think you were going to do with those butterfly nets?"

Bulk suddenly seemed to realize he still had his net in hand and quickly tried to hide it behind his back. The problem was that it was too long and the net portion of it still flopped over onto the top of his head. "Nothing, nothing at all."

Skull looked confused. "But, Bulk, I thought you said we were gonna catch his owl and turn him in for having an illegal animal to get him into trouble."

Bulk's face went red as he slowly turned to face skull. "I might have said that, dimwit, but that doesn't mean you were supposed to tell _him_!" Bulk jabbed a finger in Harry's direction prompting skull to look toward him and then back at Bulk.

"Oh…" the skinny teen said, then his eyes widened. "OH!" he seemed to then realize that he had already ruined their plot. "Oh…" Skull slumped slightly before smiling brightly loudly chewing on his gum. "Sorry Bulk. I forgot about that part."

Harry just rolled his eyes before fishing a card out of his pocket and holding it out to Bulk. "Besides, Bulk, this card is my license to own Hedwig here, and as long as Ernie has no problem with her hanging around the Youth Center with me, there's nothing wrong with her being here."

Bulk snatched the card before squinting at it for a minute, turning it this way and that as he tried to decipher it. Finally, Bulk grunted and all but threw the card back to Harry who casually snatched it out of the air like it was a Snitch. "Why do you have that owl, anyway?"

The wizard shrugged as he put his license away. "I've had her since I was eleven, Bulk, as I believe I've already told you. She's my pet and friend. I don't see how I need a reason beyond that."

Bulk seemed to study him for a moment before looking intently at Hedwig and then back at Harry. Finally his eyes widened dramatically. "I know what it is! You're trying to imitate that new Magi Ranger guy, aren't you?!"

Bulk started laughing hysterically, a laugh that Skull quickly joined with even though he still looked confused. For his part, Harry was sweating a bit but did his best to remain outwardly calm. "I can assure you, Bulk, that that is the furthest thing from the truth." He had no reason to imitate the Magi Ranger since he _was_ the Magi Ranger after all.

The overweight teen just snorted as his laughter died down. "Yeah right, nerd."

Skull immediately parroted him. "Yeah, nerd!"

Bulk continued on, ignoring his friend. "Look, I'm close friends with the Magi Ranger. You may have heard that Skull and I helped him chase off the giant gold guy a while ago. But the point is that there is no way acting like him could help someone as geeky as you to fit in." Bulk snorted again. "The next thing you know you'll be dressing up as a magician and trying to do magic like the Magi Ranger does too."

Bulk and Skull turned and stomped off, still laughing, but Harry wasn't paying them any more attention. For some reason, part of what Bulk had said stuck with him. He had a lot of problems right now, but easily half of them revolved around his lack of funds. He needed another job of some kind, and what better way for a wizard on his own to make some money in the non-magical world than as a performing magician?

-MR-

 **AN: Caution: The following section contains spoilers for the Power Rangers Movie, 2017. If you have not yet seen the movie and intend to, you may want to skip this. If you do decide to skip it, all that's left is my typical sign off at the end of a post, so you won't be missing anything. It is also a bit ranty, so be warned.**

So as I sit here before posting this chapter, having finished with my last minute editing, I feel like I should write my take on the new movie. All in all, I had a crazy time since last chapter. Originally, I had planned on seeing the new movie with a friend the Tuesday after it came out. Then her son had a really bad asthma attack and had to go to the hospital the night before. He's doing fine now, though he is on a few new medications. We rescheduled for the following Saturday, only for her mother to come into town so she had to cancel again. I asked her to let me know when she was free and we'd make it happen, but never heard back on that subject. So yesterday (Saturday, April 9th) my plans for starting up a new DnD campaign (again with this friend involved *sigh*) fell through and I realized, "Hey, I'm posting Chapter 27 tomorrow and I haven't seen the new movie yet. So Imma make this happen." And so I went.

The theater I went to is actually one I worked at for 7 years, but that isn't important until the end of the rant. I saw the movie. Yeah. That's about it. I have to say I wasn't terribly impressed. Even doing my best to suppress my inner purist and nostalgic side I was completely underwhelmed by the special effects and parts of the plot made me facepalm. One of the first things I noticed (other than how odd it sounded for Zordon to use Rita's name amongst the alien language) was how similar the whole Zeo crystal being in Angel Grove and that's why the attacks happen there is to my own theory that was introduced in this chapter. Eerie… *Ahem* Moving on.

I like the way they brought the team together, even if it was a huge coincidence (and yes I understand it is supposed to be that way since they were "destined" to be the Rangers), and while I was originally skeptical of them having meta-powers outside morph I have to admit that they way they presented it was somewhat amusing, particularly Billy. I really, really liked Billy in the movie. He was funny, which is a lot more than I can say for most of the rest of the cast. Anyway, Zordon trying to use them to come back to life kinda threw me off, though I liked how he made the 'sacrifice' to bring Billy back instead. That whole chain of events was a tearjerker for me I'll admit.

And then we get to the final sequence that should have been epic, but totally wasn't in my eyes. First we have Jason's token "Its Morphin' Time" followed by their little gasping while clenching their fists and staring wide eyed at nothing while special effects swirl around and their armor grows or whatever scene. And then Rita making Goldar, which was rather cool looking I'll admit with all the molten gold coming out of the ground, but was almost ruined by Rita's token "Make my monster grow!" And I'm just gonna leave the whole Goldar being a giant golem of molten metal alone, otherwise I doubt I'll ever be able to accept it. Freaking stupid idea…

Then comes the slow-mo walk up the ramp scene that made me roll my eyes followed by a rather underwhelming underwater "putty" fight scene for some reason, followed immediately by an equally underwhelming fight scene on land against more "putties." This is where the special effects fell flat for me. They weren't even moving like they _weren't_ on wires. And I was also seriously disappointed by the lack of actual martial arts moves in the movie, other than what Alpha taught them (FREAKING ALPHA! GRR… I'll get to that later…)

Anyway, after a few quips from the Rangers they go get in their Zords and Alpha gives the token "Go Go Power Rangers!" I facepalmed again. I kinda liked the looks of the Zords, and I kinda didn't. Meh. Then the fighting in the city. Basically, the Zords are a match for putties, and that's about it. Admittedly, there were a lot of putties, like almost too many putties for it to really be a thing, but it was still a letdown for me.

Then there was the whole Krispy Kreme scene (and you know that was a HUGE endorsement deal for them to put in the scene with Rita eating a doughnut on top of the whole "It must be a very important place, the source of all life is buried there" which you know is on a banner in a Krispy Kreme somewhere now. Oh, I almost forgot my favorite line. "Oh, so they found their costumes and their dino cars." This was really the only part of the final battle I truly enjoyed.

Then stupid, overly dramatic "Hold the line!" teamwork scene and they get pushed into the hole. Now, my first though here was that the creators of the movie totally cheated. They didn't want to have to design the Zords so that they could transform visibly to form the Megazord, so they hid it all with fireballs and a big hole. And don't think I didn't notice how similar the stupid thing looked to Optimus Prime with freaking wings. Basically they just took Optimus, smoothed out his squared edges and gave him a pair of pink wings. Voila! We have a stupid Megazord sorta-thing! *sigh*

Anyway, humorous with them having to work together to control each body part, which they instantly pick up after falling only once of course. So then we get to some rock-em-sock-em type action until Goldar makes a sword and the Rangers counter it with a belly to back suplex that ALPHA TAUGHT THEM! WTF! WHY IS ALPHA TEACHING THEM HOW TO FREAKING FIGHT! This right here almost ruined the movie for me entirely. I know it isn't the same bumbling Alpha 5 from the TV continuity, but the fact that these kids have no fighting ability at all and yet are chosen to become the Power Rangers, a group that popular culture today fully associates with martial arts and such just… GAH! I know I'm probably just nitpicking at this point, but by the time I realized what they were doing against Goldar and where they had learned it I was about ready to walk out.

Do then we have the twin wing-swords and Goldar gets melted… or something, then Rita gets the backhand from hell and flies into orbit, with her staff mysteriously absent. Looks like she could be headed for the moon, but it also doesn't. Meh. Bunch of short scenes to (sorta) tie up the end of the movie and a passing reference to the existence of Tommy in the sequel. I have to say, I'm really not sure if that little teaser scene wasn't more of a, "Oh, how cute. They actually think there's gonna be a sequel…" *sigh again*

Overall the movie was… tolerable I guess. I really would have liked it to stay a bit more true to the original, but I guess that's Hollywood, they have to glam up everything they can in whatever way they see fit. That's why the first movie in 2000 was almost a completely different continuity than the series it was supposed to represent, despite the fact that they had the same actors and such. I might just buy it to have it when it comes out, but unless my point of view drastically changes I doubt I'll watch it too much. Definitely not in theaters again…

So back to why it was important that I once worked at the theater that I saw the movie at. I talked to the manager (who is the same manager from when I worked there) after the movie was over and asked if they were still giving out the extra movie posters to patrons like they did when I worked there. Long story short, the manager gave me a complete set of five 2-sided Power Rangers teaser posters, one for each Ranger. I may not have liked the movie as much as I had hoped, but I totally have some new stuff for my future nerd cave now. : )

Thanks for reading and don't forget to review,

Tenstar12


	28. Chapter 28

Magi Ranger

By: Tenstar12

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or Power Rangers.

 **Chapter 28, or The Chapter Without a Particularly Witty Title In Which Things Happen**

"Order up!"

Harry placed a tray of food on the counter before making his way back to the grill and began scrubbing it clean. It was yet another day of work at the Youth Center. School had just let out and the first of the after school rush crowd was already arriving.

Jason, Billy, Trini, and Zack had arrived as well and were out on the mats. Zack and Jason were doing some light sparring while Trini taught Billy some of her Kung Fu style moving meditation exercises. Harry, of course, was working. As soon as the grill was clean he threw another batch of hamburger patties down while Ernie worked at the other side of the counter, making experimental smoothies with various exotic fruits.

This was a hobby that the jolly Youth Center owner had taken up fairly recently, and it was rather lucky for the Rangers that he had. Just a few days ago, the day after the Peckster attacked, Rita had sent down a two-headed parrot monster. The unique thing about this monster was that each head, one situated as normal and the other in the center of its chest, could each control their body and react while the other planned and plotted. The fact that this monster was slightly more intelligent than others they had fought meant that the Rangers were hard pressed to outwit it, even with Harry's magic backing them up.

Ultimately, Alpha had somehow determined that parrot monster liked some kind of fruit that Harry had never heard of. As it turned out, this fruit was on the list of fruits that Ernie had purchased for his experimental smoothies and Tommy was able to get one from him. When presented with the fruit, the two heads of the monster had started fighting over it, which gave the Rangers enough time to finish it off with the Power Blaster.

It had been the first time since Tommy joined the team that Rita had actually sent down two monsters in as many days, so the Rangers had all been rather tense. This tense attitude had lasted for two days before Zack's laid back attitude had fully reasserted itself, causing the others to relax more in response to his usual antics.

For his part, Harry hadn't been much affected either way. His experience in his own world made him appreciate the down times between battles, no matter how short or long they may be, helping him stay loose despite Rita's actions.

Of course this didn't really change much as he was still busy as he could be with other activities.

Harry had done some more pondering on Bulk's unwitting "suggestion" and had decided to give it a shot. He had spoken with the other Rangers and Zordon about him becoming a performing magician and, while the Rangers were somewhat confused by his desire to do so, they were tentatively supporting. The only real issue they could bring up was in regard to Bulk's assumption that he was already trying to imitate the Magi Ranger with Hedwig and what kind of attention the bully's big mouth could bring to him. Zordon had helped put any fears to rest when he explained how their connection to the Grid would help hide their identities as the Power Rangers so long as they didn't willfully expose themselves. It was this more than anything else that settled Harry's concerns and took the thought closer to action.

He next spoke with Ernie, who had reacted in his usual jovial fashion and expressed a willingness, and indeed a certain level of eagerness, in hosting a magic show at the Youth Center to help him get started. Apparently, they had had talent shows there in the past, and he didn't really see how more, similar events could be a bad thing. The businessman inside him certainly wouldn't be complaining about the extra concession sales he would receive in any case.

Kimberly, upon first hearing his idea, had mentioned a small magic shop in the mall and had offered to bring him along sometime, but had also cautioned him that props like that could be rather expensive. And so it was decided that once Harry had built up his savings a bit more they would make a trip to the mall (a concept that sent a shiver down his spine if he was honest). He was more than prepared to transfigure and/or conjure most of what he might need, but knew that he would need some examples to work from first.

After another ten minutes or so of cooking burgers, hot dogs, French fries, and mixing together various salads and other side items while Hedwig made an occasional comment from her perch in the rafters overhead, Harry's attention was caught by a rather disheveled looking Tommy, near sprinting into the Youth Center.

The initial food-rush had tapered off and so Harry was able to talk to Tommy the moment he reached the counter. "Harry," he panted. "We've got a problem. Do you know where the others are?"

Harry blinked several times before nodding. "Yeah, they're over there." He nodded toward the mats and took the chance to give Tommy a once over when he spun to see for himself. The Ranger looked rather worse for wear at first glance. He was covered with bits of leaves and there were smudges of dirt all over his clothes and face. On top of the wide eyed look and the panting from what must have been a flat-out run from wherever he had been, Harry was more than a bit concerned for his friend/sensei.

Tommy turned back to Harry. "Alright, I'll go get them. Can you meet us at the Command Center?"

Realizing that Tommy's problem was most likely of the Rita variety, Harry nodded grimly. "Yeah, I should be able to join you soon. Just let me talk to Ernie real quick."

Tommy wasted no time before jogging over to the other Rangers while Harry made his way over to stand by Ernie. "Hey Ernie," Harry said, drawing Ernie's attention away from his most recent fruit-concoction in the blender. "Something has kind of come up… Do you mind if I go ahead and take off for the afternoon?"

Ernie gave Harry a quizzical look before glancing out at the rest of the Youth Center. Harry saw his eyes narrow and followed his gaze to where Tommy was explaining things to the now panicked looking Rangers. "Alright." Ernie's voice snapped Harry's attention back to the grimly nodding face of his boss. "Go do what you have to do, Harry. I can hold down the fort here well enough. After all, I've been doing it for years before you came along." The last was said with a smile that Harry quickly found himself returning.

"Thanks, Ernie. I owe you one." Harry said before stripping his apron off and hanging it up as he moved from behind the counter. Harry took one last look at Ernie as the man gave a wistful look at his blender before shutting it off and taking in the rest of the snack bar. Without Harry there to help, the man wouldn't be able to indulge in his new hobby/obsession as much and Harry did feel a bit bad about that, but he had bigger responsibilities to deal with.

All the same, as Harry whistled for Hedwig who quickly flew down to perch on his shoulder as he joined the other Rangers, Harry couldn't help but ponder about Ernie's reaction when Harry had asked for the rest of the afternoon off. There was something going on there, but he just couldn't figure out what.

-MR-

Once the Rangers had arrived in the Command Center and exchanged greetings with Zordon and Alpha, Tommy settled down to explain the situation.

"Kimberly was having a really bad day today…"

"Yeah…" Trini commented. "I saw her this morning. Her umbrella inverted in the storm this morning and she got soaked, and her Pep Rally plans were ruined at the same time…"

Seeing everyone's eyes on her, Trini blushed slightly before apologizing and ceding the floor to Tommy once more. "So after I found Bulk and Skull were harassing her this morning, I decided to try and cheer her up by offering to walk her home." Tommy seemed oblivious to the smiles and knowing looks of the other Rangers. Even Zordon had a smirk on his face.

"We were walking from school and took a detour through the park." Harry was suddenly struck with how often things in Angel Grove happened in and around the park. With Zordon's revelation about Angel Grove housing one of the Grid's Focal Points it might be worthwhile to look into its actual location and whether or not it might be in or near Angel Grove Park specifically…

"While we were there one of Rita's monsters attacked us." Everyone listening tensed up. While they had all certainly expected Rita to have been involved, hearing confirmation of it still put them on edge.

"Alpha," Zordon commanded immediately. "Begin a sensor sweep of Angel Grove for any sign of Rita's most recent monster."

"Right away, Zordon!" Alpha responded.

Nodding, Zordon turned his attention back to Tommy. "Please continue, Tommy."

Taking a moment to gather himself again, Tommy started speaking. "It looked kind of like a samurai. I mean it looked like it was wearing armor like that, you know? But anyway, it had this jug hanging from its hip and when it opened it… something shot out of it and knocked me over. I hit my head and don't remember much after that, but I do remember Kimberly being pulled into the monster's jug."

"Ai yai yai!" Alpha suddenly shouted just as the Command Center's alarms started blaring. "Look, Zordon! I have the monster on the Viewing Globe!"

Almost as one, the Rangers turned toward the glowing orb. Next to Harry, Tommy's face grew serious. "Yeah… that's the one…"

There on the viewing globe was a surprisingly humanoid looking monster, if of course the human's face had been frozen into an impossibly wide, fanged grin like an old style samurai demon mask. There were multiple golden spikes sticking out from either side of its head and there was a red crest of some kind on top of its helmet. It was wearing, as Tommy had indicated, black samurai-style armor with various gold colored symbols and studs with a white sash tied around its waist and a large gourd jug hanging from its left hip with a cork in the opening.

"It is as I had feared," Zordon intoned deeply as the Rangers turned to face him again. "This monster is known as the Samurai Fan Man and is another of Rita's more powerful monsters. It is known for its stealth and traps, particularly the gourd you see hanging from its waist. Within this gourd is a pocket dimension that only lasts for a limited amount of time. When the dimension vanishes, so too does anything trapped within it."

"So how do we get Kimberly out?" Trini asked, the concern for her friend obvious in her voice.

"You must take the gourd from the Fan Man and open it yourselves with the intent to free that which is trapped within. If you do so, the magic of the gourd will be reversed and Kimberly will be freed."

"How long do we have?" Tommy asked, idly brushing some of the still clinging debris off of himself as he did so. Harry idly waved his hand, casting a cleaning charm and removing the rest for him and received a smile and nod in thanks while Zordon answered the question.

"The pocket dimension within the gourd is created when something is pulled inside and begins destabilizing immediately. From the time of its creation, it takes three hours for the dimension to vanish completely. This time limit is also refreshed should the Fan Man capture anything else as the pocket dimension must be re-stabilized before it can accept any new prisoners."

"Alright, we're working on a time limit guys," Jason stepped forward, his steely gaze washing over the others. "Let's morph and go save Kimberly!"

"Right!" the Rangers chanted, Harry joining them for once. The threat to their friend and teammate was more than enough to overcome his reluctance to give into the Grid's desire for dramatic flair.

Jason nodded before turning away from them again. "It's Morphin' time!"

-MR-

According to Alpha's readings, the Samurai Fan Man was still in the park, relatively near where Tommy said he and Kimberly had been attacked, so that was where the Rangers teleported to. What they weren't expecting was to immediately find the Fan Man, along with Goldar, Squatt, and Baboo, sitting around a low, stone table and eating while being served by a sizable group of putties… wearing brightly colored vests.

"Ah, Power Rangers," the Samurai called. "Welcome to the Putty Bowl Restaurant!"

Harry resisted the urge to try and scratch his head in confusion. Not only would it serve no real purpose since he was wearing his suit, but he simply refused to show any sign that the monster had confused him with the strangeness of the situation.

Jason was either unaffected or was planning to bluster his way through. "Where's Kimberly?!"

The Fan Man stood from his kneeling position and lifted his gourd jug that had been hidden behind him when the Rangers arrived. Laughing darkly, he attached the gourd to his sash again and patted it. "Oh, you want your little Ranger friend back, eh? Well then come and get her!"

The monster flung its hands out wide and the dozen or so putties around the "restaurant" scrambled to form a group between the Rangers and the monsters. Goldar too had risen from the table, but was merely standing with his arms crossed, a smirk across his simian face. Squatt and Baboo were still kneeling at the table, each drinking deeply from what looked like clay jars of some kind with oriental writing on them.

"Alright, Rangers." Jason called out, drawing and brandishing his blade blaster. "Let's take these guys down!"

Following Jason's charge, Harry and the other Rangers ran to meet the also charging group of putties. Almost at once, Harry found himself being approached by a putty in a purple vest. Feeling somewhat offended by the clay construct wearing what he sometimes thought of as his color (even if that was only because of the Grid's influence on him) Harry easily side stepped the creature's first clumsy punch before dropping down and sweeping its feet out from underneath it.

Moving quickly, Harry hopped up into the air, planting his boots into the chest of the downed putty before using it as a springboard and leaping up higher and flipping once only to practically land on the shoulders of another putty, locking his knees around its neck. The putty stumbled back into another as Harry's weight hit it, but the Magi Ranger used that moment of distraction to throw his upper body back, setting his hands on the ground with a sticking charm for leverage, and pulling the putty up and over, flipping it through the air to land on top of the purple vested one, once more knocking it flat to the ground.

Moving to stand on his feet, Harry turned to the putty that had caught his second victim. This putty seemed somehow more capable than its fellows as it blocked and dodged Harry's first few punches and countered by shifting its hand into a large ball and smashing that onto Harry's left shoulder. Grunting as he took the blow, Harry quickly wrapped his left arm around the construct's arm, trapping it in place.

As the putty struggled, seemingly beginning to panic, Harry shifted around, putting his back toward the putty before heaving it up and over his shoulder. He then released it at the top of its arc so it flew through the air before landing atop the now three high pile of putties he had made. Smiling with grim satisfaction, Harry stepped a bit closer to the putties before extending his right hand toward them, palm out with fingers splayed.

" _Incendio!_ " Harry intoned, casting the wandless spell as a stream of flame that quickly engulfed the three putties and reduced them to ash in seconds. Once he cut the spell off he examined his right hand only to find the glove slightly scorched by the backlash of his wandless spell but otherwise pain free.

Nodding to himself, Harry internally marveled at how much difference his short time learning with Tommy had improved his abilities to fight in morph. Even with guidance from the Grid he hadn't truly expected to have so little trouble with the putties.

An increase in the volume of the background noise caused by the putties caught Harry's attention. Turning, he saw an entirely new wave of putties, identified as such by their lack of vests, were now charging head long towards where he and the Rangers were at.

Smirking beneath his helmet, Harry decided to have a bit of fun and ceded more control to the energies of the Morphing Grid.

Hopping slightly, Harry broke into a dead sprint toward the approaching putties, gathering Power to his hands as he did so. Just as he came within reach of the first one, he flung his arms downward, releasing the gathered Power in a burst just as he leapt into the air. The resulting explosion not only took out the first few unprepared putties, but it also served to propel him further upward.

Flipping a few times, Harry brought his feet down just in time to deliver a powerful double-kick to the chest of a putty patroller near the middle of the pack, riding the unfortunate construct down to the ground in a crouch before rolling off of it to bleed off the rest of his momentum. Without even a moment's pause for thought, Harry planted his right hand onto the grass, using it as a pivot point and lashing out with both legs, striking the nearest pair of putties with powerful kicks further augmented by a burst of Power that sent them flying backwards into their brethren.

Still smirking, Harry righted himself before blocking a punch from one putty and redirecting another attack into the chest of a third.

By this point, most of the putty pack had made the decision to get as far away from the Magi Ranger as possible, hoping to have a better chance of fighting the other five Rangers than they would against him. Harry was just having too much fun to care.

Backing up a few steps from the three putties that had stayed near him, Harry took a fighting stance before gesturing on of them forward. "Come on then," he taunted the creatures. "Bring it on."

The nearest putty tilted its head in confusion for a moment before dashing forward, shifting its right hand into a long blade as it did and making a vertical slice with it. Harry, still awash in the Grid's Power, slid to one side, letting the blade cut through the air just to his left before lashing out with a spin kick that flipped the putty head over heels and out of commission.

The last two charged him together, but their generally uncoordinated attacks meant that he was able to redirect and dodge their attacks almost without effort. Finding an opening, Harry ducked out of the way just as they each launched a kick from either side of him, resulting in them tripping each other up and falling to the ground where Harry finished them with a pair of wandless Reductos.

"So, it seems like someone has been practicing…" Goldar drawled as he stepped into Harry's line of sight. The Magi Ranger glanced over to the others quickly, seeing that they had been drawn away slightly by the remaining putties, but it wouldn't be much longer before they had dealt with them.

"Well, you know what they say, Goldar," Harry shrugged before settling into a fighting stance. "Practice makes perfect. And I could hardly get much worse than I was. I am more than willing to admit that much. Though that still hasn't really prevented me from being able to deal with you every time we've met, now has it?"

Goldar growled, glaring at him. "Don't get cocky, Mageling… I think you will soon find that the gap in our respective abilities is still as large as it always was, no matter how much practicing you do!"

With that, the monster charged toward Harry, thankfully without his sword at the moment, and launched a vicious right hook at his head.

Harry ducked quickly, avoiding the punch before launching a jab of his own into Goldar's armored stomach. The biggest problem with this was that Goldar didn't seem to react to the hit at all which meant that Harry was completely unprepared when the monster's knee was driven into Harry's stomach.

As Harry found himself doubled over, gasping for breath, Goldar heaved him up by the collar of his cloak. "As I said, Mageling, you shouldn't get cocky…"

Goldar glanced up quickly before spinning the still winded Magi Ranger around, holding him in place with his left arm while summoning his sword in his right and holding the tip to the side of his head. "Stop where you are, Rangers."

Harry managed to focus enough to see the other five Rangers skidding to a stop from their charge toward him. They had apparently dealt with the rest of the putties in time to see him get nabbed by Goldar and had been attempting to rescue him… again.

He had really hoped he was over that part of this whole Power Ranger business…

"Let him go, Goldar!" Jason shouted, gesturing dramatically as he did so.

Goldar just laughed. "I think not, puny Power Rangers. FAN MAN! NOW!"

The Samurai Fan Man, somehow forgotten up to this point, stepped into view off to Harry's right. With another bout of rather dark laughter, the monster summoned a long war fan before waving it repeatedly at the Rangers. Almost immediately, a strong wind kicked up accompanied by short bursts of energy that sent sparks flying from the Rangers' suits when they hit.

"You look a little warm, Power Rangers!" the Samurai taunted. "Maybe this will cool you off!" With one final heave, the monster released a burst of energy from its fan accompanied by the strongest gust of wind yet that managed to knock the Rangers off their feet and blow them up and over some nearby trees and out of sight.

"And now for you, Magi Ranger," the Fan Man said as it turned to face him, idly tossing the war fan aside where it vanished in mid-flight. "Empress Rita gave me special instructions to take no chances with you, so in you go!" With a short grunt, the monster removed the cork in the mouth of its jug, allowing a stream of yellow energy to flow out, spinning into a tornado between the monster and the captive Harry.

Goldar's laughter echoed in Harry's ears as Rita's general bashed him over the back of the head with the pommel of his sword and shoved him into the vortex of Power. As darkness grew over his consciousness, Harry felt a vague spinning feeling before he was sucked into the pocket dimension within the Fan Man's jar.

-MR-

Thanks for reading and don't forget to review,

Tenstar12


	29. Chapter 29

Magi Ranger

By: Tenstar12

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or Power Rangers.

 **Chapter 29, or What to do While Trapped in a Vanishing Prison Dimension Within a Gourd-Jar Held by a Monster That Serves Your Enemy…**

Harry groaned slightly as he started to rise back into consciousness. The first thing he noticed was a throbbing pain in the back of his skull where Goldar had struck him. The second thing he noticed was the hand lightly slapping his right cheek, accompanied by a worried voice.

"Come on Harry, wake up… Please wake up…"

Gathering himself, Harry groaned once more, louder this time, as he raised his right hand, the one not pinned up against Kimberly, and tenderly prodded at his sore head. "Did anybody see the bludger that hit me?"

Kimberly let out a nervous chuckle, more in relief than at his poor joke (that she probably didn't even understand anyway), and helped Harry sit up when he moved to do so. "How are you feeling, Harry?"

Harry blinked as he looked around them. The last thing he remembered was the energy coming from the Fan Man's jar before he blacked out. Based on the fact that Kimberly was there with him and the walls around them appeared similar to the gourd jar the monster had, logic dictated that he was now trapped inside the jar as well. "Oddly enough," Harry shrugged, turning back to face Kimberly. "Pretty lousy. How long was I out?"

Kimberly returned Harry's shrug as she stood up and helped Harry do the same when he realized that they had been sitting/lying in an inch deep layer of liquid with fog swirling off of it. "Not too long. Probably only five or ten minutes, I don't even know for sure how long I've been in here myself so…" she shrugged again. "I noticed when the monster guy opened the jar and saw you get pulled in. You demorphed almost as soon as you hit the ground and I had to roll you over so you wouldn't drown in… whatever that is…" Kimberly shifted uneasily, her boots and dress were liberally soaked with the maybe-water they were standing in from her time kneeling at his side.

Harry once more looked around, upon seeing only the gourd-like walls around their relatively circular prison, he looked upward to see what looked like a cork wedged into the center of the domed "ceiling" around fifteen to twenty feet above them. Coming back to himself, he noticed that he too was soaked through and idly waved his hand, casting cleaning and drying charms on the both of them. Although their respective footwear was immediately soaked again, Kimberly still gave him a smile in thanks.

"It's kinda weird though…" the Pink Ranger continued. "This water I mean. It was definitely higher before you showed up… Like up past my waist higher… and then it dropped again when the monster opened the jar…"

Harry quirked an eyebrow before thoughts connected and he sighed. "That… makes a depressing amount of sense. According to Zordon, the monster is known as the Samurai Fan Man. We are currently trapped in a pocket dimension in his jar that will vanish after three hours of existence, taking anything within along with it. Zordon also said that if the jar is used to trap something else, the three hour time limit resets. My guess is that the rising water is something of a timer…"

Kimberly seemed to pale in the dim light that suffused the inside of the jar. "Three hours…?"

Harry nodded grimly. "Yeah, but I'm sure the others will get us out of here before then. Tommy was rather… annoyed when you were captured." Harry smirked at Kimberly with a teasing glint in his eye and chuckled when her face lit up in a blush. "So," he continued speaking before she could mount a comeback. "Have you tried morphing or anything to get out of here?"

Kimberly glared at Harry briefly before answering. "Yeah, but no such luck. I got a few sparks, but no spandex."

Harry hummed quietly before patting his pockets and retrieving his Power Coin from his back right one. He wasn't complaining, but it was rather odd how his coin always ended up in a pocket when he demorphed. The other Rangers had even reported similar occurrences with their morphers. It was just one of those random quirks of the Grid, they had decided. All the same, he might have to look into some kind of a wand holster and see if he could do some negotiating with the Grid to have his coin stay in its wand form and end up there… Perhaps with a bit of time he could even get a few enchantments worked into it… Come to think of it, hadn't Death given him a wand holster when the Elder Wand was returned to him in the void?

Breaking out of his musings, Harry shifted his coin into its wand form. "Well, my Power is a bit different from yours. Let's see how I fare, yeah?" Kimberly nodded and stepped back slightly as Harry took a dueling stance and gave his wand a flick, lighting up the tip with a mote of golden energy.

Acting with speed given by practice, Harry quickly drew his wand through the air, leaving behind the flaming representation of the Deathly Hallows symbol that adorned his Ranger suit. Seeing no problems so far, Harry pivoted his stance to stand square with the symbol and flipped his wand around so it rested along his forearm as he crossed his arms overhead at the wrist before jerking them down to his sides as he had done so many times before. "MAGI RANGER, POWER UP!"

The fiery symbol in the air before him simply fizzled out.

It was one of those moments, Harry reflected, where a rolling tumbleweed drifting across the area would not go amiss as the two Rangers stood silently for several seconds.

"Well…" Harry sighed, standing upright once more and squinting at his golden wand. "That didn't work…"

Kimberly barely held back a snort of laughter, shifting it into a cough rather unconvincingly. After a moment, she spoke up again. "Couldn't you just try to blast us out of here without morphing first? I mean, it's not like you don't have other magical powers already, yeah?"

Harry shot her a mock scowl that she countered with a look of innocence. "I was getting to that, Kim. Sheesh, give a guy a break will ya?"

Kimberly scoffed slightly before smiling at him and waving her hand dismissively. Harry just shook his head and pointed his wand up at the cork. While he could try to just break out the side of the gourd, something told him he would be better off trying to knock out the stopper itself. Nodding to himself at his logic, Harry focused his magic. " _Reducto!_ "

The lance of magic shot out of his wand immediately and Harry was instantly relieved that whatever properties of the jar stopped their morphing didn't also affect his own brand of magic. That relief was instantly shattered when the spell not only failed to have any visible effect on the cork keeping them trapped, but it actually rebounded off of it and straight back at him.

"SHIT!" Harry cursed, diving to the side with reflexes gained from his martial arts training while Kimberly tensed up. While Harry rolled through the water and returned to his feet, the spell struck the ground and ricocheted off of it at a slight angle, just enough to hit the far more drastic angle off to one side of the cork back up top, which then sent the bolt of destructive magical energy bouncing around the enclosed space rather randomly.

With judicious use of their respective skills and reflexes, and no small amount of seemingly random flips and cartwheels from Kimberly, the two Rangers were able to avoid the spell for several more seconds until Kimberly landed poorly in the water and fell to the ground. Unfortunately, the spell just happened to be heading right for her.

Harry saw this as if in slow motion and moved without thinking. With a flick of his wand Harry conjured a slab of concrete in the air between Kimberly and the blasting curse. At the same time, He dove forward, knocking Kimberly from her sitting position to lie on her back and used his own body to shield her from the shrapnel when the curse blew the concrete into pieces.

Ok, so spells were a bad idea. Duly noted. Apparently there was some kind of property to the jar, or perhaps the pocket dimension within the jar, that reflected his magic… great.

It was then that Harry realized that he was still lying atop Kimberly, face to face with her for several seconds now. Deciding to embrace his more playful, dare he suggest _Marauder_ , side that had certainly seen more development since he had arrived in this dimension, Harry shot Kimberly his best charming smile. "Well, well, look what I've caught. You come here often?"

Kimberly rolled her eyes briefly before smirking and placing a hand onto Harry's cheek. "Sorry, purple boy, but I like my men green."

Harry fought down a chuckle, twisting his face into an overly dramatic display of sadness. "Alas, my love shall remain unrequited in this, my darkest hour!"

Kimberly giggled briefly before pushing him off of her. Harry just rolled with her shove, moving to lie on his back next to her as the two stared up at the cork in the ceiling. It only took a few moments for the amusement to leave his system, allowing Harry to remember their present situation.

"You know, Kimberly," Harry started. "It occurs to me that we're lying in this strange extra-dimensional liquid and we really don't know what it is or if this is anything approaching a good idea…"

The two Rangers turned their heads to face each other briefly before, as one, they brought their knees up to their chests and kicked out, flipping themselves up and back onto their feet in a synchronized move. Almost at once, Harry waved his wand, once more drying and cleaning them of the probably-not-water they were standing in that was now noticeably deeper than when Harry had awoken. Kimberly merely stood there as his spell washed over her before giving the Magi Ranger a calculating glance.

"You're really starting to get good at this, Harry," she stated simply. "All that practice with Tommy is starting to pay off."

Harry scoffed slightly as he tucked his wand into his pocket. "Maybe for things like standing up, Kim, but it was my own overconfidence after all that practice that got me trapped in here. I was doing so well against the putties that I charged Goldar without thinking about it… again…"

Kimberly just smiled. "Hey, don't be so hard on yourself. We all have trouble fighting Goldar from time to time. And besides, you can't expect to match the level of style and skill that some of us have after only a few months of practice." She idly flicked her hair back before buffing her nails on her dress, shooting him a teasing smirk at the same time.

Harry just grinned and shook his head. It was kind of amusing, he decided, that the two were reverting to teasing and humor in response to their rather stressful situation. It seemed to be a default response for the other Rangers, save perhaps Jason, when faced with difficulties, but it was certainly not something Harry himself was used to. Though he seemed to have adopted this coping tactic himself after spending so much time around them.

As for Kimberly in particular, Harry realized that he didn't really know too much about her. They hadn't really spent a great deal of time with each other outside of Ranger activities, Harry tending to hang out with Zack and Tommy while Kimberly spent time with Trini and studiously avoided anything that may cue Tommy in on her attraction to him. Harry also found it amusing that Kimberly seemed just as unaware of Tommy's attraction to her as he was to her attraction to him. In fact…

"Speaking of Tommy, why haven't you two started dating yet?"

Kimberly's sputtering and choking fit nearly sent Harry into a fit of laughter. When she finally regained herself, she glared at him. "What makes you think I'm even interested in Tommy?"

Harry just gave her a blank look before slowly raising one eyebrow. "Really? How about when you first saw him at the karate tournament before Rita hypnotized him? You could barely keep your eyes off of him long enough to hold a conversation with anyone else. Once we identified him as the Green Ranger, you were almost constantly worried about him. And ever since he joined the team you keep shooting him these looks any time you think nobody is watching."

Kimberly intensified her glare, prompting Harry to laugh. "No, no, not that look. The one with the big, longing eyes and the pouty face."

Her narrowing eyes and clenched fists only intensified his laughter.

After a few seconds, her face shifted into a crafty smirk. "Well what about you, Harry? Why haven't you started dating… anyone? Surely there's someone you're interested in around Angel Grove by now."

Harry sobered almost instantly. "No… not particularly…"

Kimberly, sensing weakness, took a half step closer. "Come on, Harry. There has to be someone you've got your eye on."

Harry just sighed. He probably deserved this for picking on the Pink Ranger's own relationship status. "Alright, Kim, hang on a moment. Let me explain something to you, alright? Do you recall back when I told you guys about my dimension and my life growing up?"

Kimberly nodded briefly, suddenly realizing that the teasing conversation had taken a slightly more serious turn based on Harry's tone.

"Do you remember Zack asking me about any previous girlfriends?"

Kimberly thought for a moment, her brow scrunching up in concentration, before nodding. "I think so… you mentioned your fame being an issue… and the war of course… and 'other complications' I think?"

Harry nodded. "Yeah, I could never really be certain if a girl wanted to be with Harry or with Harry Potter, the Boy-Who-Lived. When you added that in with the perceived fortune that my family was rumored to have I had to be extra careful about getting involved in any relationships. Though admittedly the fame situation isn't much of an issue here."

Kimberly blinked. "Did your family have a fortune?"

Harry rolled his eyes. "Yes, but that's not really the point. What with the war going on, and even before that when I was just periodically facing different incarnations of Voldemort, I couldn't really devote much attention to a relationship either. And that's not even mentioning the target that any girlfriend of mine would have had painted on her back…"

"But that was back then. What about now?"

Harry sighed again and moved to lean against one of the walls. "Now I'm faced with a whole other set of problems, Kimberly. Not only am I involved in this war against Rita, but I really don't have anything to offer anyone in a relationship. I barely make enough money to feed myself and with the constant threat of having to run off and fight against a monster, I don't feel like I could be a very good boyfriend right now."

Harry suddenly gave a self-depreciating snort of laughter. "And besides all that, I'm not at all afraid to admit that I'm emotionally stunted. Between my less than loving upbringing with my relatives and almost immediately being thrown into the deep end of magical conflict just as I reached the age that I might have started thinking about dating, I don't think I'd have even the slightest clue what to do in a relationship."

Kimberly moved to stand next to him and placed a comforting hand on his shoulder. "Hey, don't go being so pessimistic, Harry. You just have to find a girl who will help you with learning all that. Everyone has to learn it at first anyway, so you're not really special in that."

Harry smiled weakly before shaking himself. "It doesn't matter anyway, Kimberly. Like I said, with the battles against Rita and my current situation otherwise, I just can't justify trying to get involved with anyone anytime soon."

When Kimberly opened her mouth to protest once more, both Rangers were knocked off their feet when their entire world seemed to start shaking. Harry found himself completely unable to regain his feet, and things only got worse when the gourd around them seemed to expand massively, going from perhaps ten or fifteen feet across to well over a hundred in a matter of seconds. On top of that, the liquid that had before been close to three or four inches deep was suddenly deep enough to completely submerge them, resulting in both Rangers coughing and spitting after their sudden dip.

"What the-" Harry sputtered before slipping back beneath the temporarily surging surface of the maybe-water. "Fuck!" Harry spat, both completing his thought and expressing his displeasure at getting dunked again. Something about the consistency of the liquid convinced him more and more that it wasn't water. It just didn't seem to have the same weight he usually associated with water, a fact that made it a bit harder to swim in.

Spinning around as he kicked frantically, Harry spotted Kimberly more than twenty feet away and swam as best he could to reach her. The Pink Ranger was a far superior swimmer to Harry and so it was her that had covered the majority of the space between them when they finally met up.

"I think…" Kimberly said, barely able to keep her own head above the surface. "I think Rita may have grown the Fan Man."

Harry resisted the urge to respond with sarcasm. Kimberly didn't deserve to have his irritation taken out on her. "Yeah, most likely, though I wouldn't have thought that anything like this would have happened…"

Kimberly appeared to nod, though it was rather hard to tell with all the bobbing she was doing while she swam. "No kidding… I don't suppose you could magic up anything to help us, could you? Like a boat or something?"

Harry thought for a moment before nodding hesitantly. "Maybe… hang on." Drawing his wand again, Harry conjured up a large slab of wood underneath them before hitting it with a quick series of charms to increase its buoyancy and keep it balanced no matter where they stood. Almost immediately, the makeshift raft floated up under them and lifted the two Rangers free of the liquid that Harry then once more removed from their soaked clothing.

Once the two had steadied themselves once again, Kimberly turned to face him. "So, where were we?"

Harry raised a finger and cut her off. "Can we not keep talking about my nonexistent love life please? How about if we drop this subject, I won't bring up you and Tommy any more, deal?"

Kimberly looked conflicted, but she finally nodded. "Alright, Harry. I'll drop it for now, but you really shouldn't completely cut yourself off. For all you know, there could be a perfect girl just waiting for you to look at her and notice it."

Harry hummed noncommittally, but refrained from any actual comment, though in his mind he rebelled against the thought. No matter what Kimberly might say, Harry knew that he couldn't inflict a relationship on anyone as long as he was engaged in this latest secret war.

And so the two sat there for several more minutes in silence.

Finally, Kimberly spoke again. "You know, I kind of find this reassuring."

Harry quirked an eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

Kimberly just waved her hands, gesturing to the space around them. "I mean the fact that Rita grew her monster. That means that the others are fighting against it and probably have their Zords out by now. If the Fan Man had just retreated back to Rita's moon base after capturing us, the others might not have been able to get to us in time. As long as we have this proof that the fight is still going on, I won't lose hope."

Harry blinked before nodding smiling at her and stopping himself before he once more brought up how upset Tommy had been at her capture and how that would make him fight harder than usual. It was a struggle, but he remembered the deal he had only just made with Kimberly and really didn't want her to keep commenting on his own relationship status.

Instead, he voiced another thought. "Personally, I'm just glad that we aren't experiencing any real turbulence in here. Other than the shifting when the jar grew, things have been rather calm. I really don't fancy trying to swim in all this if we were feeling all the movement that normally comes with a Zord battle…"

Kimberly seemed to pale before nodding frantically. "Oh yeah, I see what you mean."

Ironically enough, the jar chose that moment to shift violently to one side, sending the two Rangers and their makeshift raft tumbling once more into the waves below them despite Harry's charms. "Me and my big mouth." Harry commented as he latched onto the wood, doing what he could to maintain his grip and keep himself above the surface despite the frothy waves around him. He was more than a little thrilled that he had maintained his grip on his wand through his most recent tumble, though he once more reaffirmed his intent to see about creating a wand holster.

Kimberly managed to grab onto the opposite side of the raft and merely glared at him silently.

And then they heard something. It was only the slightest of grinding noises, but it drew their attention upwards to the cork.

The cork that was shifting slightly as it rose up and away from them.

"Hey…" Harry said slowly. "It is just me, or is the cork getting pulled out?"

Before his companion could respond, the cork was indeed pulled free from the jar and the two Rangers held their breath to see what was going to happen next. Idle fears of one of the Zords getting sucked into the jar and crushing them were almost immediately swept aside as Harry and Kimberly found themselves swept up into a vortex of yellow energy that lifted them up and out of their prison…

Only for them to immediately begin falling from a height of nearly six stories.

Harry glanced around quickly and took in the sight of the Dragonzord: Battle Mode tossing aside the jar and cork before turning to face off against the giant Fan Man while the Tyrannosaurus Dinozord battled with Goldar. They were in one of the many flat, rocky areas outside of Angel Grove and the ground was pitted with craters and the like from various explosions. Exchanging a glance with Kimberly, who was falling next to him while wrestling with her morpher, Harry nodded and whipped his wand around in front of him, immediately drawing a flaming symbol of the Death Hallows.

"MAGI RANGER, POWER UP!" "PTERODACTYL!"

As soon as their suits formed around them Harry immediately released a burst of Power. "HEDWIG!"

A mere twenty feet from the ground and what would have been a very painful landing even with their suits, both Rangers found themselves snatched out of the air by Hedwig's talons. – _Harry/Wizard, why were you trying to fly without a broom?_ -

Harry rolled his eyes. "It wasn't by choice, Hedwig…"

Hedwig merely let out a short bark and sent him a feeling of amusement as she flapped hard to gain altitude. Once she had and turned back toward the battle, she tucked her wings in tight to her sides and spun, releasing the two Rangers above her only for them to land solidly on her back when she righted herself and spread her wings again.

"Woah!" Kimberly shouted, crouching low against the wind. "That was intense!"

Harry smiled beneath his helmet. "Yeah, Hedwig has always been a good flier, though I've never had the pleasure of flying with her like this before!"

Waving her forward, Harry led Kimberly up to stand on Hedwig's head, allowing the Zord to bleed off her momentum and start hovering in a vertical position while the three looked upon the fight before them. The two respective battles were going similarly, just not for the same side. Between the Tyranosaurus and Goldar, the simian's sword and the extra reach it gave him was a distinct advantage that was made apparent by the numerous scorch marks dotting the Zord's hull. Yet between the Fan Man and the Dragonzord: Battle Mode, the Zord's drill tipped spear was a clearly superior weapon to the Fan Man's… rake… really? Harry nearly facepalmed before refocusing on the battle. Alright, the rake that the Fan Man was using to try and combat the spear wielded by the Zord was proving to be less than effective.

"Well," Kimberly said, stepping forward slightly. "Looks like it's time we got involved here, eh Harry?"

Harry nodded, summoning up the Magi Staff and spinning it to gather Power. "I agree, Kimberly. Let's show these guys why you don't mess with the Power Rangers!"

Kimberly raised one hand to the mouthpiece on her helmet, almost as if suppressing a giggle. "Harry, that almost sounded cheesy."

Harry scoffed. "I blame the Grid Power I'm gathering right now. It does things to you…"

Without commenting again, Kimberly turned back to face forward before throwing her right hand into the air. "I need Dinozord Power, NOW!" Kimberly then leapt straight up into the air and was met seconds later by the streaking form of her Pterodactyl Dinozord that then made an attack run, flying over the battle while firing lances of energy into the Fan Man and Goldar.

"Alright, Kimberly!" Jason's voice echoed across Harry's communicator. "Nice to have you back. Harry, are you joining the party too?"

Harry smiled as he finished channeling Power into his now glowing staff. "I'll be there momentarily, Jason." With a grunt, Harry brought his staff down onto the dome atop Hedwig's head and released the Power in a burst as they fused once more.

In the week and a half since he and Hedwig had first done this, Zordon had advised Harry to spend more time with his familiar. In particular, he instructed Harry and Hedwig to meditate together and work on combining their energies to allow for a more fluid fusion in the future. It would help prevent the dual identity feeling that they had both reported during the fight with Mutitus which would only make them even more successful in future battles.

And it was only due to this practice, which they tended to do each night before Harry fell asleep on his cot, that Harry still felt mostly himself when awareness returned to him and he found himself looking out Hedwig's eyes.

"Alright, Hedwig," Harry said, once more hearing his voice echoing around the battleground for all to hear. "Let's take the fight to them."

- _Of course, Harry/Wizard._ -

And with that said, Harry felt Hedwig trigger the same transformation sequence as before. He felt as his wings swept up and back, making room for a pair of more familiar arms to fold out of his chest. He felt the avian head fold down to reveal the humanoid head beneath even as his legs stretched out to double their length. Finally, after a few more seconds and several clanks and grinding noises as his currently mechanical form settled, Harry allowed himself to move again, taking a fighting stance as he called out in a dual voice of both his own mixed with Hedwig's mental one. "Silver Owl Zord, Warrior Mode!"

It had been rather uncomfortable and more than a bit disorienting going through the transformation sequence this time. He supposed that was because of his greater feeling of self and his awareness of the sensations this time around. Still, he felt Hedwig's comforting mental presence just "behind" his own, waiting to step in and help if necessary even as he started walking toward Goldar and the Tyrannosaurus.

"Jason," Harry called out, somehow feeling that he was transmitting through their communicators as opposed to out loud. "Hedwig and I will hold off Goldar, you and the others should focus on the Fan Man for now. He's the bigger threat."

There was no response for a second and Harry was a bit worried that Jason would react badly to him giving advice that was rather close to battle orders when Jason was the "leader" of the team. But after a tense few moments, Jason responded. "Alright, Harry, good luck. We'll back you up as soon as we take care of the Fan Man." And the Tyrannosaurus Dinozord disengaged from Goldar, turning away to stomp over to where the other Rangers were battling the Fan Man in the Dragonzord: Battle Mode.

"SO, MAGELING…" Goldar drawled, brandishing his sword as he began slowly walking to the side, a movement that Harry copied so that the two gargantuans were circling each other. "YOU AND YOUR PET BIRD THINK THAT YOU CAN TAKE ME NOW WHEN MY POWER IS AUGMENTED BY MY EMPRESS?"

Harry gave a mental smirk, one he felt Hedwig copying. "Must we go through this pointless taunting every time we fight Goldar? I understand that you have to psych yourself up before we get going, but it's getting really old by now."

Goldar sneered. "SO BE IT, MAGELING. I SHALL ENJOY PLUCKING YOU BOTH!"

With that, Goldar charged, swinging his sword toward Harry's head. It seemed, however, that Harry was much faster in this form than Goldar was. With an almost negligent move, Harry ducked, letting the blade pass over his head, before standing once more and using the slight bit of extra momentum from his legs to drive his right fist into Goldar's armored stomach, this time with much better results. "Not so fun when I'm the one with the upper hand, is it Goldar?"

The armored simian growled as he stumbled backwards, his free hand clutching over his stomach as Harry watched him idly. "But why should we stop there?" Harry asked, as he reached behind his back with both arms and underneath the feathery cloak that had once been Hedwig's wings. With a slight jerk, his two arms came back around him holding a pair of large feathers that were each nearly as long as his arms. Grasping them firmly at the base, Harry flipped the one in his left hand around into a reverse grip and took a fighting stance. "Feather Sabers!" Before Goldar could react, the two feathers flashed brightly as their forms changed into a pair of wide blades with D-guard handles and feathered designs going all down their length.

"DON'T THINK THAT A FEW WEAPONS WIL SCARE ME," Goldar roared, his confident visage shifting into rage. "I AM MORE THAN SKILLED ENOUGH WITH A BLADE TO DEFEAT YOU NO MATTER WHAT FORM YOU TAKE!"

Harry and Hedwig exchanged a mental smirk again before Harry charged forward, holding his blades at the ready. In point of fact, Harry still had absolutely no training with a sword, let alone using two at once, but this particular aspect of the fusion between himself and Hedwig was controlled almost exclusively by his familiar, who seemed to have it programmed into her robot body. So it was with a casual sweep of his left blade that Harry deflected Goldar's first attack and followed up with a strike across his chest with the right one, sending Goldar back in a shower of sparks.

"You see, Goldar," Harry taunted. "The problem here is that you haven't quite grasped the advantages I have now." Harry moved fluidly to one side as Goldar staggered back to his feet and lunged forward with his sword, leaving an opening for Harry to smash the pommel of one blade into the back of Goldar's head in a suitably ironic counterattack.

As the monster shook off the blow and climbed to his feet once more, Harry continued. "You are a powerful fighter, it's true, but you're all power." Goldar spun to face him before stepping close again, swinging with his sword in an overhand slice that was blocked by an upraised arm and Harry's reversed sword. When Goldar increased the pressure on Harry's blocking blade and tried to punch him with his free hand, Harry slipped to the side, letting Goldar stumble past where he had just been standing and letting Harry spin around and lash out once more with his right blade, striking Goldar across his back. "And while you are all power, in this form Hedwig and I are speed and finesse, so as long as we keep you off balance you don't stand a chance."

Harry stepped up again, his swords flashing out repeatedly, leaving behind a latticework of scorch marks and sparks. "I'll admit that I was overconfident earlier today," Harry ducked underneath a desperate backhanded slash before bringing his own blade across Goldar's wrist, forcing him to drop his weapon. "But as I am now, fused with my familiar and fighting together as one, you can't hope to touch us, so a bit of overconfidence can be forgiven."

Harry backed away several steps and flipped his reversed sword back into a proper grip while Goldar panted and growled at him. As the monster watched, the dome housing the Resurrection Stone that now sat in the center of the Warrior Mode Zord's chest began glowing. "Goodbye Goldar." In the blink of an eye, the glow from the orb spread to the two blades, emphasizing the feather patterns on each of them as Harry lifted both blades overhead.

"Silver Owl Zord, Twin-Blade Buster!" With a completely unnecessary grunt of effort, Harry swung both blades down, impacting the ground and releasing the energy held within in a stream of destruction that raced along the ground toward Goldar. However, before the attack reached him, Goldar was engulfed in a bright red aura and vanished mere moments before the attack exploded.

"WE WILL FIGHT AGAIN ANOTHER DAY, MAGELING, I PROMISE YOU THAT."

Harry sighed internally as he rose from the crouch his attack had kept him frozen in. Stupid Grid and its need for dramatics. If it weren't for all the posturing he had to do he might have been able to finish Goldar off…

Throughout the battle, Harry had subconsciously noted the "radio chatter" of the other Rangers as they battled the Fan Man, but it was only now that he really paid attention to it.

"I call upon the Power of Titanus and the Ultrazord!"

Harry blinked, actually feeling the metal eyelids of his Zord move when he did so. He knew that Titanus was a Zord of incredible Power, but to his knowledge, the Rangers hadn't called on him so far. This should be interesting…

The ground started to rumble several moments before the long white neck and head of Titanus came into sight. The Zord moved on treads like a tank. Although it had legs similar to those of the Brontosaurus it was modeled after, they appeared to be nothing more than ornamental. Its body was wide, but was generally featureless as compared to the other Zords Harry was more familiar with.

The Fan Man, now wielding the same war fan it had used on the Rangers just before Harry was captured, seemed rather taken aback. It was stumbling back as if in fear, holding its fan in one hand and waving the other as if in a panic.

Then Harry heard Jason's voice once again. "Alright guys, prepare for Ultrazord Transformation Sequence!"

As Harry watched, idly noting that his blades had changed back into feathers as he tucked them back into his wings/cloak, Titanus began changing form. It was a relatively simple change all things considered. The back of the Zord opened up and the neck shifted forward and down, lowering it in comparison to the rest of the body. And just when Harry thought it was done, two massive cannons rose up from the body to rest on either side of the neck.

Harry smirked.

Now in the regular Megazord, the Rangers made their Zord jump into the air, spinning as it did and landing squarely in the now empty recession in Titanus's back. Meanwhile, the Dragonzord split in half vertically from the forehead down while its feet tucked themselves up behind the large knee plates. The resulting construct settled itself onto the Megazord's head and shoulders with a loud clank signaling it locking into place.

By now the Fan Man was nearly falling over itself trying to back away. Harry was just confused as to why it hadn't tried attacking during the transformation sequence or why it didn't turn around and run. After a few moments, he just labeled it as another one of those Morphing Grid things and continued to wait for the fireworks.

He didn't have to wait long. "LOCK ON AND FIRE ALL WEAPONS!"

Almost immediately the two cannons on either side of Titanus, or rather the Ultrazord, lit up with internal light and let loose a pair of energy blasts that slammed into the Samurai Fan Man and staggered him backwards. The monster was then peppered with multiple blasts coming from the Dragonzord portion as nearly every prominent part of it, from the tucked in hands to the knee plates resting on either side of the Megazord's shoulders, began firing energy attacks of their own that bombarded the Fan Man relentlessly.

Finally, the monster dropped to a knee as its own defenses failed under the sheer number of attacks. It only had time for one last cry of despair and anger before it fell fully to the ground and exploded.

Hearing the cheers of his fellow Rangers, Harry just smiled. The Ultrazord relied on a massive number of attacks to overwhelm its opponents and wear them down as opposed to a single more powerful attack as with the other Zord combinations, but it was no less effective.

"Alright, Rangers. Let's head back to the Command Center." Jason called, good cheer in his voice from another Power Ranger victory.

"I'll meet you guys there." Harry responded as Hedwig triggered their transformation to change back to her owl form. It was no less off putting than the previous change had been.

-MR-

Zordon's debriefing of the Rangers and their viewing of the battle's replay in the viewing globe took a bit less than an hour. As soon as the formalities were over, Trini all but bolted over and wrapped Kimberly in what looked like a very tight hug.

"I'm glad you're alright." she mumbled into Kimberly's shoulder before releasing her and turning toward Harry. Before the Magi Ranger could react, he found himself in the same position as Kimberly had been.

Harry froze momentarily, his eyes widening at the unexpected contact until he noticed Kimberly giving him a significant look, nodding toward Trini. Harry just raised an eyebrow in confusion before returning Trini's hug, albeit not quite as tight.

The hug lasted a bit longer than Kimberly's, not that Harry was really counting, and as soon as Trini stepped back, the slightest hint of a blush on her face, Zack started in on them. "So what happened to you guys in that jar?"

Harry and Kimberly shared a glance before she gestured for him to speak. He sucked a breath through his teeth before doing so. "You know, just your average dimensional prison: water on the floor, creepy fog, walls that reflected spells… the usual."

Tommy snorted. "So just an average day in the life of a Power Ranger, yeah?"

Harry chuckled as he nodded. "Pretty much."

-MR-

After spending a portion of his afternoon trapped in a jar, though with not unpleasant company, Harry had a strong desire to feel the sun on his skin for a while.

So of course he let Kimberly and Trini drag him to the completely indoor mall to (in theory) look into the magic shop Kimberly had mentioned. It seemed however that there was at least one rule that remained true no matter what dimension he was in: girls were scary, especially when it came time for shopping.

It actually took them a full two hours to get around to the magic shop from when they entered. The sad thing was that Harry had spotted the place almost immediately upon entering the building, but Kimberly and Trini had literally dragged him in the opposite direction to where Kimberly knew of a sale that she just HAD to check out.

And so it was.

After two hours of trudging through the mall and carrying an ever increasing load of bags (and being asked his opinion on how certain outfits looked FAR more than he was comfortable with), Harry was finally able to take a look around the magic shop, only to be almost immediately disappointed. He wasn't really sure what he had expected, but a ten by ten shop with a few simple magic books, decks of playing cards (marked and unmarked), and other small tricks wasn't really it.

The older man working behind the counter was very helpful, probably because there weren't many customers on an average day, but in the end Harry left with a few recommended books, a couple decks of playing cards (unmarked, thank you), and the man's well wishes ringing in his ear. It wasn't quite the start that he had imagined, but Harry knew he had achieved more with less in the past.

-MR-

Thanks for reading and don't forget to review,

Tenstar12


	30. Chapter 30

Magi Ranger

By: Tenstar12

WARNING: There be language in this chapter. Or at least more so than in the entire story so far. Ye have been warned.

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or Power Rangers.

 **Chapter 30, In Which Harry Takes a Bite Out of Crime and the Sledgehammer Falls…**

Harry was waiting in a line.

It wasn't an especially novel situation, all told, but there hadn't been very many lines to wait in during his life after he left primary school, so he felt it worth noting.

"Next, please."

Harry stepped forward as the line moved.

The week and three days since the Samurai Fan Man had trapped Kimberly and Harry in his dimensional prison-jar had been rather interesting, although not in the normal Power Ranger based way. Indeed, this short stretch of time had brought about not a series of monster battles, but a few rather dramatic changes in the relationship status of three members of the Ranger team.

To start things off, the day after the Fan Man was beaten, Kimberly took the metaphorical bull by the horns and asked Tommy on a date. The typically shy teen had been taken aback at first, but had agreed all the same and later confessed that he had been trying to work up the courage to ask her out for some time. Kimberly had apparently later told Tommy of her conversation with Harry while they were trapped because the Green Ranger had spoken at length with the wizard during their next practice session. Tommy had expressed his thanks for helping get the relationship going, unintended though it may have technically been, and then proceeded to utterly annihilate him in a spar in a subtle form of revenge for any perceived embarrassment that Harry may have caused him.

Harry was very tight lipped about the conversation he had had with Kimberly, refusing to share details with Tommy even though he knew that there hadn't been much said about the Green Ranger specifically. He somehow felt that letting him know that most of his comments had been geared toward teasing Kimberly wouldn't have gone over much better anyway.

"Next, please."

Harry stepped forward.

The second relationship that started was one between Zack and his long time crush: Angela Griggs. This particular relationship had been a long time coming, arguably longer than Kimberly and Tommy's. Zack had apparently been attempting to woo Angela for years, often with little to no success, but his persistence finally paid off and the girl had agreed to go on a date with him. It must have gone well, though Zack was telling no tales, because the couple were frequently seen together in the Youth Center and around town.

Angela was a woman who volunteered to help with children a lot, babysitting and the like, so Zack often found himself drafted into the role alongside her, but he didn't find this to be any real trouble. With his quick wit and impressive dance moves, not to mention his Hip-Hop Kido, Zack was able to entertain most children on his own, and when you tied that in with Angela's attitude and experience, they made a good team.

Unlike Kimberly and Tommy, however, Zack wasn't dating "within the team," so to speak, and Harry was a bit concerned as to whether or not the relationship would last under the pressure of Rita's attacks and Zack's responsibilities as a Power Ranger. It was a rather depressing thought in truth, so he chose not to dwell on it too much.

"Next, please."

Another step forward.

Still on the topic of Ranger relationships, a discussion with Zack on his own newfound and long anticipated status change with Angela had brought up the topic of Billy and his maybe-girlfriend Marge. Harry had heard absolutely nothing about the girl since the whole Madame Woe debacle and so had ended up bringing her up with the Blue Ranger when next the group met for casual conversation.

As it turned out, Billy and Marge "Regularly coordinate our daily schedules so that we can rendezvous and discuss the relevancy of various scientific theories and postulate on improving said theories through experimentation." Harry translated that (with some help from Trini of course) to mean that the two regularly met up to discuss things way over Harry's head, but weren't necessarily dating as such. But then again, what did he know about what a pair of socially awkward intellectuals would do on dates?

"Next, please."

Step.

For Harry's part, when he wasn't involved in discussions about the love lives of his fellow Rangers, his schedule was largely unchanged. He still spent mornings training with Zordon in using Grid Magic and most afternoons with Tommy in Karate. He still worked at the Youth Center and practiced several minor close-up magic tricks in his down time and showered his familiar with affection and bacon (even though she didn't necessarily have to eat anymore, Hedwig loved her bacon).

The biggest deviation from his schedule was a group training session put together by Tommy and Jason where all the Rangers met up on the Sunday after their most recent battle and sparred with each other. Jason had explained it away as a way to make sure everyone was staying up to scratch, purely as a precautionary measure of course, but Harry felt that it was more geared toward him and his own progress in the martial arts under Tommy's tutelage.

After losing spectacularly to Jason, Tommy, Zack, and Trini, having only slightly less trouble before being beaten by Kimberly, and lasting nearly three minutes in a spar against Billy, Harry was pronounced to be well on his way in his education. Jason then made several comments on how Tommy was definitely better as Harry's teacher since he was able to focus solely on Harry, a fact that had clearly had positive results based on his observations. Harry politely neglected to comment on how Jason had been focused on Harry as well, just not for the best of reasons.

Harry had just wanted to get out of the public park and away from the small crowd they had gathered so he could cast some healing charms to get rid of his new bruise collection.

Aside from that, Kimberly had spent a bit more time talking with him since their shared ordeal. All in all he was rather confused by it. Not that he at all regretted forming a closer friendship with another of his teammates, but he found himself constantly thrown off by the significant looks she would shoot him, especially when all the Rangers were gathered together. He figured she was trying to tell him something, but as he was only a male and singularly untalented with Legilimency, he found himself unable to figure out what it was.

"Next, please."

Step.

The final, and arguably most inconsequential, difference since the Fan Man's defeat was that Ernie had started paying him in weekly checks as opposed to cash. The man had claimed that it was for tax record purposes, which Harry understood in theory, but it brought about an entirely new issue for him: Harry had no idea how to go about cashing the checks.

It was only then that he really started to understand Hermione's frustration about the separation between the Magical and Muggle Worlds. Harry, having been isolated by his relatives for so long and then by Hogwarts and the war afterwards, was seriously lacking in Muggle World survival skills that most everyone else he knew seemed to take for granted. It just so happened that checks, banks, and how to deal with the two together was on that list. Or at least banks not run by goblins…

Luckily enough, Ernie had recognized his confusion upon handing over his first "official paycheck" the previous Friday and had quickly gleaned the reasons behind it. So it was that the lovable owner/operator of the Angel Grove Youth Center took Harry to Angel Grove National Bank to help him set up his own Checking Account under the guise of helping his British-born employee navigate the hazards of American banking. This was a comment that brought many a chuckle from the good natured banking employees and several eye rolls from Harry.

After the first introduction to the system, Harry figured the process out (more or less) and so felt confident enough to make future trips on his own. The fact that Ernie wouldn't be coming along to make any more teasing jokes at the expense of him and his British heritage had absolutely nothing to do with it of course.

But as inconsequential as the origin of these events was, it was still the base reason why on Friday, December 3rd 1993, Harry James Potter found himself back the local branch of Angel Grove National Bank. Waiting in a line.

"Next, please"

Harry stepped up to the counter, finally getting the chance to deposit his latest paycheck.

He had been hoping to get in and out quickly, but for some reason there were only two tellers on duty that day. That would have been enough if one of them hadn't been kept occupied by tending to a constant stream of customers in the drive through lanes, which led to the long wait. Putting his frustration aside though, Harry smiled at the red haired woman behind the counter as he slid his debit card, endorsed paycheck, and filled out deposit slip across the counter.

"Just depositing today, hon?" the woman said with a smile.

"Yes, ma'am." Harry nodded, watching as she went about her job with efficiency born from repetition.

Then, as the woman passed back his card and a receipt, things went wrong.

"Ladies and Gentlemen…" A strangely muffled voice shouted out from behind him, from the direction of the main doors. "This is a robbery…"

Harry, spun in place, shock on his face even as he internally groaned. Leave it to the old Potter luck to get him into this kind of situation.

At a quick glance, there were six men (or so he assumed) standing just inside the doors to the bank. Each of them was wearing a ski mask and each of them was toting some kind of a weapon. One was hefting a sizable sledgehammer while another wielded a baseball bat and kept twitching his head this way and that as if nervous. Three of them were holding what looked like some kind of automatic rifle, though Harry knew far too little about guns to even guess as to what kind, and the last, the speaker, was holding a pistol in each hand.

The other customers in the bank, a good fifteen to twenty people counting Harry himself, seemed frozen in place. A few that Harry could see seemed so totally shocked that something like this was happening that they were completely beyond words for the moment. It seemed something so mundane as a bank robbery in Angel Grove threw its citizens off worse than a monster attack these days.

Before any of the customers could start to panic, the speaker quickly took control of the situation. "So here's how this is gonna work. My associates here are gonna direct you all to the walls of this fine establishment. Once there, you will hand over any and all valuables you have on your person, this includes any credit cards, watches, purses, wallets, jewelry, etcetera. Any refusal to do so will result in you being injured most grievously. Any attempts at being a hero will result in you being shot. Any questions? No? Good. Gentlemen, if you would?"

As one, two of the men with the automatic weapons stepped to either side of the glass doors, allowing them to play sentry as it were and also keeping them out of the line of sight from outside the bank. The third gunner flanked the speaker as he strolled idly around the lobby area of the bank as if on a pleasurable walk in the park. At the same time, the two without guns were directing the customers to either side of the lobby, shoving and cursing as they forced the still mostly shocked civilians into compliance.

Harry took all this in grimly as his mind began spinning. The bank was a solid brick building with blinds closed down over the windows. The only clear line of sight into the building was through the drive through windows in back and the doors in front. The thieves were careful to stay out of easy sight from the doors and the likelihood of someone figuring out what was going on from the drive through lane was relatively slim. The lobby itself was around thirty feet across with maybe twenty feet between the main doors and the tellers' counter. The only furniture was a table in the middle of the room where various bank forms were kept and a few chairs up against the walls.

Harry turned slightly to try and see what the two tellers were doing behind the counter, only to find the woman who had just finished helping him with his deposit holding a pistol of her own to the side of her coworkers head. Feeling his gaze upon her, the woman looked up and met his eyes with a smirk. "That's right, hon, no more help coming from this end."

Harry turned back around when he heard a snort from nearby and found the speaker standing mere feet from him. "That's right kid, we planned this whole thing out months ago. That's our girl on the inside who has done a wonderful job making sure things ran as smooth as possible for us. So why don't you just be a good little punk and move on over to the corner there."

The man gestured to the wall next to the counter and Harry backed away slowly, lifting his hands as the man pointed one of his pistols in his direction. When Harry felt his back hit the wall with the counter close to his left side, the man lowered his gun again and Harry let himself relax slightly.

It was about this time that the two thugs with the hammer and bat pulled out a garbage bag each and started shaking down the hostages for their valuables.

While the theft began in earnest, the insider behind the counter made her way out, shoving her former coworker before her at gunpoint and leaving the woman sobbing on the floor with some of the other hostages. "We've got a bit of a problem, boss. This bitch managed to hit the silent alarm before I got to her. We've got maybe ten minutes before the cops show."

The speaker snorted before nodding wrapping one of his arms around her waist as he spoke. "It's all in the plans, babe. We have enough hostages here to keep the cops off our backs long enough to ensure our getaway."

As the two with the bags worked their way down either side of the room and with the speakers comment still ringing in the air, one person, an older gentleman who had just been forced to hand over his watch, decided to comment. "You won't, you know. You won't get away with this. The Power Rangers will stop you."

This seemed to cast a strange tension over the room as the criminals all looked toward him. Finally, the speaker began chuckling as he slowly walked toward the man. "You think that your precious Power Rangers are going to show up to stop a bank robbery? What makes you think they would even stoop so low? Pah!" The man scoffed, waving one of his guns lazily through the air as he stalked ever closer. "Those do-gooders are too busy worrying about that space bitch that seems obsessed with your little city to even think of comparatively lesser dangers to law and order such as ourselves."

By this point, the speaker had reached the man who was glaring at him defiantly. "To be honest, I would be completely surprised if even one of those costumed freaks showed up here. That was the entire point behind our plan after all."

Turning away from the older man and with his machine gun toting shadow following closely, the speaker strolled casually back toward the center of the room and leaned on the table there. "We noticed some time ago that the stories had changed a bit coming out of Angel Grove. I mean, who didn't notice the sudden 'monster attacks' and the appearance of your costumed heroes to save the day, but what we noticed was the slacking off of the law enforcement and rescue services. This presented opportunity to our minds. Since the law was getting lazy, we decided to move in and help ourselves to the fruits of Rita's labor, as it were."

Harry cursed inwardly, but the man wasn't finished talking. "As it turns out, we weren't the only ones who noticed this trend, since that purple Ranger guy was quoted by one of your local news stations, chastising said services about their slacking off. Well, when we saw that report, we knew that meant that we had to make our move sooner rather than later…"

Harry cursed again, glaring at the seemingly unconcerned criminal's back even as he felt his saving people thing flaring up again. Here were a bunch of Angel Grove citizens in danger, and what's worse, it could be argued that they wouldn't have been in such danger if it hadn't been for his own comments on the day of the Peckster's attack.

Harry was shaken out of his self-recrimination when the sledgehammer toting bank robber blocked his view of the speaker. "Alright kid, hand over the stuff."

Harry just scowled as he fished his bank card out of his pocket and dropped it into the man's bag with a glare. He knew that he needed to do something, but the presence of so many people meant he couldn't morph in here and the presence of so many guns made him shy away from attracting attention to himself with any of his regular spellwork.

The man, however, wasn't satisfied with his contribution. "Come on now ya little fucker, I know you have to have more than that on you, so hand it over."

Harry met his eyes as he spoke. "Sorry to disappoint you, mate, but that's all I have."

"Oh yeah?" The main raised an eyebrow before dropping his bag and grabbing Harry's left arm and wrenching it up. "What about this watch then? Is this nothing?" Harry could only watch, hiding a grimace as his shoulder protested his forced movement, as the man stripped his communicator off his wrist and dropped it into the bag. "Now, seeing as you aren't being cooperative enough, I think I'm gonna have to be a bit more persuasive. Just remember, it's your own fault."

Before Harry could comment, the man released his arm and buried his fist into Harry's stomach, knocking the wind out of him and dropping him to his knees. Several people nearby cried out in panic and protest, but a few warnings from the other bank robbers kept them back.

"Not so snarky now, are you, ya little bastard," the man crowed, bending down and grabbing Harry by the collar of his shirt, lifting him upright and slamming him back against the wall. "Now hand over the rest of your valuables before I have to really hurt you."

Harry just glared, a look the man matched before setting his sledgehammer aside and punching him in the stomach once more with his now free hand. He then used his left hand to keep Harry up against the wall while he started patting down his pockets with his right, immediately pulling Harry's wallet (empty except for his Zordon-and-Alpha-created ID) from his front pocket and dropping it into his collection bag.

At this point, Harry had only one thought in his mind. He currently had a rather valuable looking coin in his back right pocket that this man would be only too happy to steal from him, almost definitely not even realizing what it was he was taking. Harry was momentarily stricken with the thought that he really needed to stop putting off making a charmed wand holster before it was brushed aside with a pure need to act and a brief rush of Power from the Grid.

Just as the man reached around to check his back pockets, Harry lashed out with his right foot, planting a kick between the man's legs with enough force to cause him to release Harry as he stumbled back a step. Quickly regaining his balance, Harry followed his attack up with a gut punch of his own, doubling the man over before catching him in the nose with his knee and knocking the bank robber to the ground with blood gushing from his face.

A click was Harry's only warning before a shot rang out and a lance of pain raced across the side of his right calf, dropping him to the floor once again.

Several of the other hostages screamed while the speaker merely leveled his gun at Harry once again. "I warned you, kid. You shouldn't have tried to play the hero, and killing one of you will only help in our negotiations with the cops, so…"

Knowing that he had only moments to act, Harry heaved himself up with his left leg, grabbing ahold of the countertop next to him as he rose and flipping up and over top of it to land hard in the teller's space behind it even as another shot flew past him, boring a hole in the brick wall of the building.

Harry lay on his back, panting as his injured leg screamed at him from the sudden exertion. He knew that he needed to do something; to get his coin out and shift it to his wand so he could try and fight back if nothing else, but the pain was too much just then.

"Now what good do you think that's gonna do you, kid?" the speaker taunted, his voice shifting as he, and presumably his shadow, walked closer to the counter. "After all, it's not like it's gonna take me long to get back there. But if you'd rather die behind the counter in order to spare these other fine people the sight of your brains being splattered out the back of your head, then I suppose I don't mind the trip…"

He knew he had to think fast, but there wasn't really a whole lot he could do right then, and without his communicator, he couldn't really even call for backup…

"Come out, come out, you little brat…" the speaker's voice was punctuated with the sound of the gate leading behind the tellers' counter swinging open.

Harry grimaced in pain as he settled on a plan, but gathered up his magic all the same before rolling across the ground and disapparated with an overly loud CRACK.

He reappeared, gasping in pain, on the roof of the bank building and immediately clapped his right hand over his wounded leg, casting a wandless numbing charm and ignoring the numbing in his fingers in exchange for the sweet relief from pain. The bullet had only grazed him, but the bloody furrow it carved in his leg still hurt like crazy.

Keeping his hand in place, Harry reached across his back with his left hand and, slowly but surely, fished his Power Coin out of his pocket. "Alright, assholes… So you think none of the Power Rangers are gonna show up, huh? Let's see what you think of this."

If anyone had been close enough, they would have heard a triumphant cry from atop the Angel Grove National Bank. "MAGI RANGER, POWER UP!"

-MR-

Within the bank building, the captive civilians were panicking. Many of them had heard the sharp crack and assumed that the brave young man who had tried to fight back against the criminals holding them was now dead. This was an idea that was brought into question when the speaker's voice came from behind the counter. "Where the hell did that little shit go?!"

Mere moments later, he came stomping out from behind the counter, glaring around the room. "Is he back out here?"

"No, boss," the sledgehammer wielding man replied, having mostly recovered from Harry's counterattack even as he was wiping blood from his face. "Or at least he didn't come back over the counter."

The angry gunman then spun to face the insider, one of his guns pointing at her in his anger. "Jenny, is there anywhere back there he could have gone?"

The woman shook her head in a panic. "N-no! At least, I don't think so… I made sure all the doors back there leading into the rest of the building were locked up before you showed up so nobody could escape that way, just like you asked."

"THEN WHERE THE HELL DID HE GO!" the man shouted, waving his weapons wildly. "We were supposed to avoid all this weird crap while we were here! Wha-"

The speaker's ranting was cut off by a soft pop that nobody heard, followed by an ear splitting crack that everyone did. When the criminals collectively turned toward the sound, they found that four of their captives were mysteriously gone.

"WHAT!" the speaker shouted before wheeling to face the man with the bat who had been closest to the vanished hostages. "Where did they go?!"

The twitchy criminal flinched beneath his ski mask. "I-I dunno Rocky… They were here just a second ago, and now… they're not…"

The speaker, Rocky apparently, just scowled jabbing the man in the chest with the barrel of one of his guns as he spoke. "I know that you moron, but where-"

Pop CRACK!

Rocky spun around to find that fully half of his hostages from the other side of the bank were now missing.

"Alright, that's it! Jenny, you keep an eye on that group, and Bones," he jabbed a gun toward the sledgehammer wielder, "you watch those ones. This crap ain't happening again! And Franky," he jabbed at the twitchy man again, "go get the money out from behind the counter." The twitchy man vanished behind the counter as quickly as possible.

One of the men by the door leaned toward the other and whispered. "I thought we wasn't using no names…"

His whisper hadn't been quiet enough though as it managed to attract Rocky's attention, causing him to wheel around and face his fellow bank robber. "And all that went right out the fuckin' window when this freaky shit started happening. All of our plans are crap now!" His eyes widened as he glanced out the glass doors and saw the familiar red and blue lights of the police force reflecting off of windows and cards across the street from the bank.

"And now the fucking cops are here and we're running out of bargaining chips!" he howled in fury, attracting the attention of the rest of the room as everyone tried to catch sight of the police, either in desperate denial or in fear.

Pop CRACK!

Rocky whirled around again only to find the group of hostages that were under the guard of Jenny were now missing. "You fucking bitch! Where did your hostages go?!"

Jenny turned back around herself only to go pale as she saw that her charges were indeed gone. "I… I…" she stuttered as Rocky stalked toward her, raising one arm as if to hit her with his gun only to be interrupted when Franky came out from behind the counter, his garbage bag now bulging with money in addition to the stolen valuables he had taken from the hostages.

"I got it all boss, should we hit the vault now?"

Rocky scowled, lowering his arm much to Jenny's relief. "We don't have time for that anymore. The cops are here and we're almost out of hostages." He paused for a moment as his eyes trailed over the last four cowering civilians. Finally, he stood straight. "Alright, here's what we're gonna do. Franky, you take the loot from Bones. Bones, you and Jenny don't take your eyes off of those hostages. We're gonna need them if we're gonna get outta here without metal bracelets."

Pop Pop

When the noises sounded from the opposite side of the room from the hostages, all the criminals in the room spun to face it, brandishing their guns, and so they were unprepared for the next series of noises.

Pop THUD CRACK!

Rocky spun back around in time to see Bones stumbling and falling to the ground just as his final hostages disappeared in the company of what looked like a figure dressed in purple.

-MR-

Harry was kinda having fun at this point.

He had managed to silently apparate back to his place behind the counter with a disillusionment charm in place and watched as the bank robbers flipped out over his disappearing act. While watching, he noticed a chance to get some of the hostages free and took it, sacrificing his complete silence while apparating for enough speed to get a group of four hostages outside the building before silently apparating back to his initial position.

He had to force down a few snickers, especially after he rescued the second group, five people this time, and Rocky freaked out even more.

When the police had shown up Harry was more than happy with their timely response to the silent alarm. He had managed to use that as a distraction to get another group of three out, clearing out the hostages from one side of the room.

When Rocky started to try and plan things out more, Harry had had to plan a bit himself, but it was relatively easy to relax his hold on his silence a bit more and draw their attention away from the remaining hostages. Then he had taken a great deal of satisfaction in knocking Bones away from the final four before apparating them all out of the bank.

He took a moment then to catch his breath, noting that the police and rescue services personnel were moving to escort the hostages to get checked out by some EMT's, before turning to face the bank again.

Before he could head back in to finish things, a police officer grabbed his arm. "Uh… thanks for the help Magi Ranger… uh… sir… Do you want us to take it from here?"

Harry smiled beneath his helmet before shaking his head. "Nah, I think I can handle this, officer. Thanks for the offer though. It's just a good thing I was in the area when this went down. It seems that they had an insider that was supposed to keep anyone from alerting you guys."

"Then who pressed the silent alarm?"

Harry shrugged. "The other teller managed to set it off before she got caught by the insider. I was told this by the first hostage I rescued. He got shot, in the leg I think, but I dropped him off elsewhere before returning for the others. I was in a bit of a hurry at first. I'll make sure to bring him back after these guys are dealt with."

With a final nod and a brief look of concern, the officer released Harry's arm and watched as he stalked toward the bank doors.

Harry was mildly amused to note that the robbers had locked the doors now and, from what he could see, appeared to have barricaded themselves behind the tellers' counter. Chuckling slightly, Harry waved his hand and magically unlocked the doors before strolling in as if nothing was out of the ordinary.

"Well, well," he drawled. "What do we have here? I understand you guys didn't think your little stunt in here wouldn't attract the attention of any of the Power Rangers, yes? It's a good thing I happened to wander by."

Rocky seemed to have lost his earlier desire to talk. "Waste this freak!" With that, the bank robbers opened fire, three pistols and three automatic rifles letting out gouts of flame and lead faster than most could react.

Most people were not Harry Potter and/or the Magi Ranger though.

Almost yawning, Harry conjured up a transparent shield of kinetic force with Grid Power, causing the bullets to come to a full stop in midair, deforming slightly as their own energy was negated and even bled off to reinforce Harry's shield, before dropping to the ground.

When the gunfire finally stopped, Harry stepped forward and scowled beneath his helmet. "You know… I REALLY don't like that word…" As the criminals scrambled to reload, fear and panic clear on their faces, Harry just waved his hand and cast a summoning charm. "None of that now." With the guns floating in the air before him, Harry slowly and obviously closed his fist and they each crumpled in midair under the influence of his kinetic magics until they were little but oddly shaped balls of metal.

Rocky and the others just looked shocked, but the leader quickly got over it and drew a knife from his belt. "I ain't getting taken in by some wanna be in tights!"

The man vaulted over the tellers' counter and covered the few steps between them in seconds. He brought his knife up and tried to stab Harry in the stomach, but telegraphed his move so badly that it was mere child's play for the Ranger to deflect the attack to the side.

Not one to be put off so easily, Rocky brought his blade back and tried again. "Don't care who you are or what you may think you can do." He grunted as Harry deflected yet another attack, but he continued doggedly. "I'm gonna kill your ass!"

By now the rest of his gang, minus Jenny who seemed paralyzed in fear, had scrambled to join their leader. Bones and Franky were still using their weapons of choice, but two of the other three had drawn knives of their own while the last one was bare-fisted.

Harry just shrugged and worked their presence into his defense. With Rocky and the three gunmen up so close, the other two were unable to bring their weapons into play without running the risk of hitting their comrades, and so Franky and Bones were staying back. This meant that Harry could focus on fewer targets and with Grid Power running through him it was an almost negligible task.

Unfortunately for Harry, he let his overconfidence run a bit too high again. This was proven when he felt a heavy impact on the back of his head, dropping him to the ground from the sheer force.

"HA! That'll show ya, you fucking asshole." Rocky taunted, panting. "Good work Bones."

"Thanks, boss."

Harry was inwardly cursing himself for letting down his guard. Just because nothing these common criminals did was able to actually hurt him (and he was more than a little glad that his suit and protected him from the blow from Bones's sledgehammer), that didn't mean he should take them any less seriously than one of Rita's monsters.

While the thugs taunted and jeered at him, Harry just scowled before attempting to climb back to his feet. "Oh no you don't!" Franky cackled, sweeping Harry's left arm out from under him with what would have been a bruising swing of his bat were he not in morph. "And stay down! Hey, boss, we've got a Power Ranger for a hostage now!"

Rocky laughed in response. "Yeah, I suppose we do."

"And you suppose wrong." Harry announced just before releasing a wave of kinetic energy from his body, serving to knock the six away from him and onto their backs while Jenny just screamed from behind the counter.

Harry climbed once more to his feet, noting that his opponents had as well, and shook his head. "I really only have myself to blame for this. I shouldn't have been playing with you bloody wankers. But, fun time is over now. Oh well. _Stupify!_ " Harry pointed toward Bones as he cast, releasing the red bolt of a stunning spell along with a few sparks as his suit protected him from the wandless backlash.

As expected, Bones collapsed bonelessly when the spell hit, which sent Rocky into another rage. "Get that freak!"

As the now five criminals prepared to charge, Harry just growled and thrust his hands out to either side. "I already told you, I do NOT like that word! _INCARCEROUS_!" From the palms of his hands, a surge of conjured ropes erupted, twining about each other as they wound their way through the air and toward the now backpedaling thugs.

In mere moments, Rocky and his gang, including the unconscious Bones, were trussed up like pigs and floating merrily through the air, attached to a rope that Harry held in one gloved hand. Smirking at them from behind his helmet, Harry idly strolled over toward the counter before leaning over to catch sight of the still cowering Jenny. "So, are you gonna come along peacefully, or would you rather make things difficult?"

-MR-

When the Magi Ranger emerged from the bank with six would-be bank robbers tied up and floating behind him with the seventh trailing at the end with her hands bound, a cheer erupted from the watching crowd of civilians.

Harry just waved his free hand idly, jerking the rope with his other and bringing forth a bevy of complaints from his captives as they bobbed through the air in response. When a pair of officers approached him, Harry passed the rope over to the nearest one. "The spell on the rope will last about thirty minutes before they'll drop, so I would recommend cuffing them before then."

The officer just looked stunned for a second before a look of childish glee overtook his face as he tugged on the rope and led the criminals through the air and towards the barricade of police cars and his fellow officers so they could be processed. In the meantime, the other policeman was just staring at him in confusion. "I have to ask, if you don't mind, sir, but how did you know what was going on?"

The man spoke with a rather strong Irish accent, a fact that Harry found mildly amusing, but knew he would have to suppress that as the question, and indeed the entire situation, wasn't really conductive to levity. "Just like I told the idiots who decided to try and rob the bank today," Harry said with a shrug. "I just happened to be in the area. I heard the first pair of gunshots and popped in there to rescue the victim before getting the other hostages out." He shrugged again. "It was all a coincidence really, but I'm glad I was able to help. Now, if you don't mind, I'm going to go and get said gunshot victim and send him back here. I have a few other things I need to take care of so…"

The officer blinked twice in quick succession before snapping to attention and saluting him. "Of course. With everything you and the other Rangers do for us, I think we can take care of the rest of things here today. Thanks you, sir, for everything you've done today and everything you have done and will do in the future. We all appreciate what you Rangers do for us."

Harry was feeling more than a bit embarrassed at this point, but managed to do his best to mimic the officer's salute. "Happy to be of assistance, officer." And with that he spun in place and apparated back to the roof of the bank and out of sight where he immediately slumped in relief.

"Damn…" Harry sighed. "That wasn't fun. Why is it that I have an easier time with fighting against people than dealing with the public?"

Shaking his head at his own rhetorical question, Harry demorphed and immediately fell to the ground as his injured leg made itself known once again now that the power of his suit wasn't helping to support him. "Ah bloody hell…" Harry looked at his right calf, finding the bottom half of his right pants leg soaked in blood that also managed to run down into his shoe. "That's gonna make things fun… Let's see here…" With a bit of focus, Harry renewed the numbing charm and cast a few minor healing charms to slow the bleeding. As much as he would like to fix himself up right away, he knew that he needed to make an appearance as himself and it might not make much sense to the emergency workers for him to be completely unharmed when he had so much blood on his clothes. There were just some questions he didn't feel like dealing with at the moment.

With a sigh, Harry apparated once more, reappearing with a loud crack close to where he had been standing earlier and found himself almost immediately caught by the surprised Irish Policeman as his leg gave out. "Hey there now. I got ya, son."

Harry forced a smile through his irritation at the weakness in his injured leg, offering his thanks as the officer helped him limp his way over to the EMTs.

-MR-

"I CAN'T BELIEVE YOU DID THAT!"

Oddly enough, Jason was unhappy. And there was a great deal of disbelief inherent in that statement because Harry had honestly hoped that, seeing as he had used his Powers to help save a bunch of innocents from a group of individuals who had no issue whatsoever with shooting someone. He figured that acting as a hero, even if it wasn't against Rita's forces, would be perfectly acceptable to the stern leader of the Mighty Morphin Rangers.

Though if he was honest, Harry was quite surprised that Jason had managed to keep his anger in check until he had finished his story.

Keeping his thoughts to himself even as Hedwig nuzzled his face reassuringly from her perch on his shoulder, Harry just sighed. "I morphed to apprehend a group of gun toting bank robbers and then had to use some wandless magic to recover my stolen property, including a few Confundus charms to make the emergency workers let me go without a completely unnecessary trip to the hospital. Why is this a problem?"

They were currently in the Command Center, the other six Rangers having only just teleported in a few minutes before. Only really long enough for Harry to give a very general overview of his most recent adventure. Apparently though, Jason had heard about it on the news at the Youth Center (something that didn't surprise Harry at all since Ernie always gathered everyone's attention when there was a report about the Power Rangers on the little television he kept at the counter), and had had time to form his own opinions about what Harry had done.

"I can't believe you morphed against a bunch of regular people!" Jason continued with a glare, dismissing Harry's question. "Those powers are meant to be used against Rita and her forces only! You can't just do things like that!"

Harry felt his temper building now in response to the utter ridiculousness Jason was spouting. "And why the hell not? The guy freaking shot me in the leg and you expected me to just apparate out and leave the other hostages there to fend for themselves? Do you honestly think you would have done anything different?"

Jason paused at this, clearly unable to refute Harry's statement, before he blinked and renewed his rant on a new angle. "It doesn't matter, because you've broken your oath!"

Harry just slumped and rolled his eyes. "Oh, have I?" he drawled as he lifted a hand, a single finger extended. " _Lumos._ " The tip of his finger lit. " _Nox._ " The light went out and he lowered his hand before shrugging. "No, it seems as though I didn't, otherwise I would have already lost my magic."

Jason just looked stumped. "But you escalated a battle and used your Powers against a normal person. That has to be against the oath, isn't it Zordon?" His face took on a look of utter confusion as he and the other Rangers turned to face their mentor.

Zordon hummed in thought for a second. "I do not believe that Harry's actions were outside of even the oath I asked for from you, Jason. But you must remember that Harry swore a different oath himself. As I recall, Harry swore to never use his Power for evil, but cautioned that he would not stand aside and let evil happen if he could stop it."

Jason looked shocked. Apparently the thought that he would have been able to take similar actions to Harry's, and indeed might have been expected to in this case, hadn't really occurred to him. Zordon continued. "While I do not necessarily condone using your Power to search out any and all sources of criminal activity you possibly can, I also cannot agree with simply standing aside and letting such actions happen with your knowledge."

"But Zordon," Billy piped up. "Didn't you tell us that most people in Angel Grove would be affected by the Morphing Grid to prevent extreme violence such as that exhibited by the bank robbers today."

Zordon bobbed his disembodied head in a nod. "That is correct, Billy. But the individuals in question admitted to Harry that they were not from Angel Grove. In this case, they were outside the influence of the Grid's positive energies while they planned their actions, though the extreme and irregular reactions of the leader could well be attributed to the Grid. As I said, Bulk and Skull's bumbling nature is most likely because of the Grid's influence on them, so a similar process could have started on these criminals from another city."

Jason seemed to regain cognitive thought and opened his mouth once again. "But Harry's actions put our secret identities at risk. His being there during the robbery means someone could connect him with the Magi Ranger and then the other Rangers with us, despite any protection granted by the Morphing Grid!"

Zordon shook his head. "The Grid will keep anyone from connecting the magical effects to Harry himself. Any confusion will be attributed to the Magi Ranger alone. This is one way the Grid helps to protect your anonymity with the public. By preventing the association of any supernatural effects with your public identities."

"And it's not like I was there just to break up the robbery, Jason." Harry calmly interjected running his fingers through Hedwig's feathers to help calm himself. "It's like I told the bobbies, it was a coincidence that I was there to stop it all in the first place. I won't say that I wouldn't do it again given the opportunity, but I didn't go looking for them."

Jason shook his head angrily and scowled, but before he could open his mouth to speak, Zack put a calming and on his shoulder. "Jase… just let it go man. Like he said, any of us would have done the same thing…"

"Yeah," Kimberly piped up. "And Zordon said that he wasn't gonna hold it against Harry anyway."

Billy nodded as well. "And it is clear that he hasn't violated the terms of his own oath to Zordon."

Tommy stepped up to Jason's other side and added his own two bits. "And nobody saw anything that would lead to discovering his identity, so as far as I can see, we're all covered."

Trini, a grim look on her face, walked past Jason and over to Harry. "And aside from all that, he got hurt while saving all those people. That should at least grant him some sympathy and leeway here. Pull up your pant leg, Harry. I wanna take a look at where you were shot."

Despite Harry's protests, Trini managed to force him to sit on the back of one of the computer banks before pulling up his bloody pant leg to take a look at his injury. The EMTs had wrapped his leg in gauze and bandages to help staunch the bleeding before taking him to the hospital, but Harry's magic had caused them to release him at that point. He just hadn't had a chance to heal himself up yet.

Trini was picking at the bandages, probably trying to find a loose end so she could unwind it and take a look at his actual injury when Jason snapped out of his stupor. His emotions were already running high from his own outrage at Harry's actions that were so far beyond what the Power Rangers were supposed to do and it was only made worse by the fact that everyone else saw absolutely no problem with it. And now seeing Trini all but abandon her longtime friend to fuss over the new guy, he just snapped.

"Of course you're only worried about Harry, Trini. Why be worried about what kind of an impact that his actions could have on all of us when he's hurt. The only reason you're even supporting him is because you have a crush on him!"

Harry blinked as he whipped his head up from watching Trini's actions to Jason's outraged face. Then he swept his eyes over the rest of the group, taking in Zack and Tommy's slight scowl toward Jason, Billy's look of confusion, and Kimberly's outright pissed off expression. Then he turned to Trini who was frozen in place, staring blankly ahead with her face lit up in the most extreme blush the Magi Ranger had ever seen.

Almost all at once, Harry felt like he had just been bashed in the head by Bones's sledgehammer again. The looks he had seen Trini give him on occasion and how she always seemed extra happy whenever Harry helped her with anything. Kimberly's questions as to his love life while they were in the Fan Man's jar now took on a whole new light, as well as the significant looks he had been unable to figure out since then.

Trini liked him. Trini LIKED him. And Harry had absolutely no idea how to react.

Luckily enough, Trini acted instead.

Standing slowly, Trini turned away from Harry and walked over to Jason. Without saying a word she drew back and slapped him across the face before teleporting out in a column of yellow light.

For several seconds, nobody moved. Even the constantly flashing lights and beeping computer terminals of the Command Center seemed frozen and silent in the wake of Jason's angry revelation and Trini's reaction.

Jason himself seemed to realize immediately that he had gone too far, and Trini's smack only reinforced that. He just slumped in on himself, sliding down the side of a computer console to sit on the ground, his head in his hands.

Kimberly stepped up next to him and nudged him with her foot until he looked up. "Unless you feel like there are any more private matters that you want to tell the class, I'm gonna go check on Trini." When Jason shook his head, his sorrow written all over his apologetic face, Kimberly turned to Harry. "Hey, give me a bit and I'll call you on the communicator to come and talk to her yourself, alright?"

When Harry merely nodded dumbly, still not quite processing everything, Kimberly nodded back and teleported out herself to start searching for her longtime friend.

Finally, after a few more minutes of silence from all and sundry, Harry found his voice. "Trini… likes me? She has a crush… on ME?"

Zack started chuckling, the sound cutting through the air and relieving the majority of the tension like a hot knife through butter. "Yes, Harry, she likes you. I can't believe you didn't see it yourself, man. I mean, you picked up on Kimberly liking Tommy easily enough, so I figured…" he shrugged. "Then again, it was pretty obvious with the way Kim was acting and Trini was a bit more… circumspect."

Tommy chuckled this time, ignoring the fact that he had been as oblivious to Kimberly's attraction to him as Harry had been to Trini's. "That's a pretty big word for you there, Zack. You been studying with Billy?"

When the laughter from the joke had run its course, even Billy getting in a bit of laughter despite still being rather bewildered by the entire situation, Jason finally spoke again. "I'm sorry everybody… I just… I saw the headline on the news at the Youth Center, but all I really saw was 'Magi Ranger' and 'Harry Potter' in the same place and jumped to conclusions about you blowing the secret. The rest just escalated from there."

When nobody responded, Harry decided to step up. "I don't think you really need to apologize to anyone currently here, Jason, but I doubt Trini will be up to speaking to you for a little while."

Jason glanced up at him, a teasing glint in his eye. "Yeah, I should probably let you talk to her first though, shouldn't I?"

Harry just groaned while the other male Rangers laughed at his expense. All may not have been forgiven, but things were at least set aside for now.

- _So are you and Pretty-Yellow finally going to stop dancing around each other and begin preparations for a mating flight, Harry/Wizard?_ -

Harry was too busy choking on his own spit to explain his reaction to any of the other Rangers.

-MR-

When Kimberly's call finally came, Harry teleported to a remote corner of Angel Grove Park to find Trini sitting alone on a park bench. With nobody else visible in the area, Harry found himself walking over to her, his leg newly healed, and sitting next to her as calmly as he could.

After a few minutes of silence, Harry cleared his throat nervously. "So…"

Trini sighed. "So…"

A few seconds later, they both broke into nervous laughter.

"Why is this so hard to do?" Trini asked.

Harry shrugged, shooting her a smile. "You've got me. I've never really been in this situation myself."

Trini's own smile drooped a bit, but rebounded quickly. "You'd think that after Jason spilled the beans like he did it would just be a quick 'yes' or 'no' thing, wouldn't you?" She trailed off for a moment before shaking her head. "But Kim explained some of what you told her about your relationship history or lack thereof, so I know I really can't expect things to be that easy."

Harry sighed before turning to face her. "I really don't know what to say here, Trini. It's not that I don't like you or don't find you attractive, I do, but it's like I told Kimberly, I don't see what I have to offer anyone…"

Trini held up a hand to cut him off and took a deep breath, fortifying herself. "When I look at you, I see a friend. I see a guy who was willing to put his life on the line to help us in our fight when he really didn't have to. The fact that Rita has something of yours means nothing in this case. I see a comrade in arms that I would trust with my life and an ally that I know I can always count on. I also see the shy person beneath that battle hardened exterior. I see a nice guy who is not at all unattractive who I would like to see if I can get to know better. To see if we could have a relationship together… I know you feel like there's a lot in the way of having a relationship like this, but all I'm asking is that you give it a chance."

Harry stared at her blankly before closing his eyes and nodding firmly, mostly to himself if he was honest. "Alright… I suppose we should just give this a shot then? Take a chance and see how things progress?"

Trini's answering smile lit up her face in happiness. "Yeah, we can see how it goes."

Moving just a bit awkwardly, Harry lifted his right arm before draping it over her shoulder and pulling her into a hug that she quickly returned. Suddenly a thought occurred to him and he chuckled into her shoulder. "For what it's worth, Hedwig approves."

Trini snorted before pulling out of their hug with a blush on her face only to snuggle back in under his arm while he held himself somewhat stiffly. "Well," she finally answered. "That's practically familial approval right there. And I would hate to see what she would have done if she hadn't approved…"

The two were silent after that. Lost in their own thoughts as they stared into the distance, his arm over her shoulder and her leaning into him.

-MR-

Thanks for reading and don't forget to review,

Tenstar12


	31. Chapter 31

Magi Ranger

By: Tenstar12

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or Power Rangers.

 **Chapter 31, In Which Harry Gets in Over his Head…**

"Ready one. Punch two. Block three. Punch four. Back five, and… Kiai!"

Harry shuffled one of his decks of playing cards as he watched Jason teaching his Karate class. The customers weren't as plentiful today, most likely because of the holiday festivities going on in Angel Grove. With his area behind the counter cleaned up and Ernie back to mixing up various fruit smoothies, Harry was left with little to do to alleviate his boredom than practice his up close magic tricks.

It had been a whirlwind few weeks since Harry's involuntary involvement with the bank robbery. There was a lot going on in Angel Grove in general and with the other Rangers in particular with school out and all of the holiday preparations happening, but Rita was strangely quiet. There wasn't so much as a single monster attack, heck not even a putty sighting on the news, and the nervous tension they felt had quickly been overcome by holiday spirit.

As it was, Kimberly and Trini were out braving the shopping crowds with Tommy tagging along, a boyfriend duty Harry only avoided due to his shift at the Youth Center. Jason was teaching his class at the Youth Center while Zack and Billy sparred nearby, working on the Blue Ranger's form. Harry, of course, was scheduled to work and with the sparse crowd was resigned to his relative boredom as he held a deck of cards in one hand and tried to maneuver the top one just right to get it to jump off the deck so he could catch it in his free hand.

It was rather slow going.

A few of the tricks he had been practicing came to him fairly easily. Basic card tricks and the like were typically just a lot of methodical shuffling and sleight of hand that he found came somewhat easily to him after so many years of delicate control for wand movements and the like. Most of the small, non-card tricks relied on that same sleight of hand as well as quick movement to distract the observers while he set up the trick. But some of these more complex card tricks were giving him some difficulty.

And don't even get him started on the one attempt he had made at throwing the cards…

More than once he had been tempted to use his own magic to ease things along. Just make the cards or props or what have you behave like the trick was designed to make them appear to. In reality as opposed to the illusion created by the magician. He had expressed his dilemma to Zordon and the other Rangers in passing and they had all convinced him to keep working at it. He had actually been quite embarrassed after the slight telling off he had gotten from them at what they saw as him trying to take shortcuts as opposed to working at it. Ultimately though, he had redoubled his efforts to learn to do this type of magic the proper way.

But if and when he got to the point where he was doing bigger magic and performances, he couldn't make any promises.

But aside from learning issues, with his magic tricks and his more practically applicable studies with Tommy and Zordon, Harry had had a rather nice few weeks. Ever since he and Trini had decided to start dating, the two had spent time together every day, even if it was only on Harry's lunch break or a few hours when Trini could get free of family obligations on her holiday break long enough to meet up. Though they had managed a few more "traditional" dates when their free times (and available funds) lined up, their more intimate interactions had been limited to hand holding and cuddling as they had in the park after Jason's reveal as they had both agreed to take things slowly.

Zack and Kimberly (though to a lesser extent than Zack) hadn't been terribly amused when they had found out about the new couple's self-imposed pace. The both of them had been looking for, as Zack put it, "Tales of wandering hands and stolen moments in shady corners." Harry and Trini had exchanged a look before blushing and turning away from each other immediately. They were both too shy/socially awkward for that to be a viable option in their minds, at least at this early point in their relationship anyway.

In the end, Zack had taken every opportunity for some lighthearted teasing of the new couple while Kimberly just dragged Trini off after each date and spent time giggling with her and shooting him looks while Trini blushed. Jason had, after a very awkward apology to the entire team for his outburst and specifically to Trini and Harry, largely left them alone. Tommy was completely supportive of his fellow Rangers' relationship and Billy had wished them both well in his own verbose fashion.

"Hey, are you Harry Pottah'?" an accented voice asked from nearby. Turning towards it, Harry's eyes fell upon a dark skinned man, probably similar in age or slightly older than Harry himself, wearing jeans and a brightly tie dyed t-shirt. Relatively nondescript in his features, he had one of those faces that would simply blend into a crowd. Rather forgettable all things considered.

Taking a moment to gather himself, Harry nodded in return. "I am. What can I get for you?" As he spoke, he idly tucked his cards into his pants pocket and moved closer to the grill.

The man, however, shook his head with a wide smile on his face. "I actually don't need any food, mon. You see, I'm here because I heard you're a magician. I want to hire you."

Harry blinked, shook his head slightly, and then blinked again. "I'm sorry, sir," he said, feeling his cheeks heat up. "But I'm not really anywhere near being ready to do any actual performances or anything. I'm still learning the basics to be honest…"

The man just waved his hands, as if dismissing Harry's statement. "I don't need any big tricks or anything. It's for my little sistah'. She's on a bit of a magic kick right now, what with the Magi Rangah' running around and all. I promised her I would try and get someone to show her some magic tricks, and maybe teach her a few of them… so…"

Harry groaned internally as he stared at the man, debating with himself in his head. "I don't know…"

"Come on, mon," the man's voice was taking on a pleading tone now. "She's only six years old and she really wants to see some magic."

Harry was feeling even worse about it now. Did the guy have to mention that his sister was only a child?

"I can pay too. How about a hundred dollars for whatever time you can give?"

Harry groaned inwardly once more. While he wasn't quite as strapped for cash as he could have been, an extra hundred wouldn't go amiss to help keep him fed and such, not to mention funding future dates with Trini.

With a heavy sigh, Harry shot the anxious looking man a weak smile. "Alright, I might be able to help you out. So long as you understand that I don't really have anything too incredible in my repertoire just yet."

The man looked ready to start dancing in place he was so excited. "Excellent! I was hoping you would agree, mon! She is gonna be so happy!"

Harry just stared, a little shocked at the man's over-the-top reaction. Before he could say anything though, the man had slid a piece of paper across the counter and continued speaking in his jubilant voice. "Here is our address. When can you come by?"

"Err…" Harry's brain seemed to be spinning in place with how quickly everything was happening. "Well, my shift ends in about an hour and I would need to head home to pick up a few things…"

"So give it a few hours then? Thank you so much, mon! You have no idea!"

And with that the man turned on his heel and left. It was only after he had passed out of sight that Harry realized he had never gotten his name.

-MR-

Before his shift ended, Ernie had managed to get Harry to explain the whole situation to him. The kind hearted man was more than a bit amused at how off balance Harry was with the entire transaction, but helped him with directions to the suburban address the man had left all the same.

Once Ernie had finished teasing him, Hedwig had started in. At first, she seemed rather uneasy about the entire situation, but when neither of them were able to reason as to why, she set aside her concerns in favor of all but ordering Harry to bring her along. Aside from her normal attitudes toward protecting Harry, she admitted to wanting to see some of Harry's new "magic" for herself, if only to tease him about it later on.

So it was that after ending his shift at the Youth Center and letting Zack, Billy, and Jason know what he was doing, he teleported back to the Command Center, collected his supplies (after informing Zordon and Alpha of what was going on), and teleported once again to a location relatively near his destination, Hedwig riding along on his shoulder.

Idly looking around him as he walked down the quiet suburban street on the outskirts of Angel Grove, Harry took in the houses around him. Far from the uniformity of Privet Drive he had grown up around, each house he passed gave of a feeling of individuality and pride as he looked upon them. From the carefully tended gardens and lawns to a few trimmed hedges, bushes, and trees, and the well maintained houses themselves, the entire neighborhood just resonated with happiness to him. It was a feeling that he tried to take in as best he could to combat the nervousness building within him at what was technically his first job as a magician, simple though it was.

A mere five minutes of walking later, Harry caught sight of a group of people loitering on the lawn in front of one of the houses ahead of him. The group was standing near a long wooden table with a few chairs set up nearby. As he got closer, he vaguely recognized the accented man who had hired him, mostly because of his clothing… surrounded by about eight children.

Feeling some trepidation at the fact that his audience went from one little girl and her brother to at least eight, Harry barely managed to keep himself moving forward. Shortly after he spotted his client, the man spotted him as well. "Harry! You're early!"

Harry waved back to him with his hand not holding onto the rolling suitcase he had conjured to carry his supplies and careful to not dislodge Hedwig in the process. He waited until he was close enough to not have to shout back before responding. "Yeah, I figured I may as well get going before I lost my nerve."

The man chuckled. "Well we wouldn't want that, would we? My sistah' would be so disappointed…"

Harry just laughed along with him, though a touch uneasily, before turning his attention to the eight strangely silent kids standing in the yard. "So… er… which one of these is your sister? Oh, and I don't think I caught your name earlier either."

The man seemed to recoil slightly, a strange look flashing across his face before he responded. "I never did mention my name, did I?" He scratched the back of his head and laughed weakly. "Sorry about that, mon. The name is… Michael." He extended a hand to Harry for a handshake, which the Magi Ranger quickly took.

As soon as they grasped hands, Harry felt Hedwig's talons tense up slightly on his shoulder. - _Harry/Wizard,_ \- she said evenly. - _Bad feeling is back again. This man… feels… wrong. I do not know why, but…_ -

Harry narrowed his eyes a fraction as the two men shook hands, but he couldn't see anything out of the ordinary. – _I'll keep my eyes open, Hedwig, but we're already here now, so…_ \- Aloud, he reminded the man of his other question. "And your sister is…?"

The man again seemed to flinch, though this time his face took on a bashful look. "You see, the thing is… she isn't here yet…"

Harry just met his gaze with a flat look.

The man started chuckling again. "Our parents took her out earliah' and they aren't home yet… I was kinda hoping for you to be a surprise for her, but one of her friends asked what I was setting up out here and when I told her she told some other kids and…" He gestured helplessly to the group of still quiet children behind him.

Harry groaned to himself again before taking another breath and nodding firmly. "Well, let's get things going then, eh?"

"Ah…" Michael started before nodding towards the still somewhat tense form of Hedwig on Harry's shoulder. "What about the bird? Not that I'm complaining, but…"

Harry shrugged, again carefully to avoid dislodging his familiar. "This is Hedwig. I've had her since I was eleven and she is perfectly safe to have around the children. I figured if worst came to worst and your sister wasn't impressed with my magic tricks…" he shrugged again. "Well, she always gets a good reaction from the kids who see her at the Youth Center."

The man's eyes brightened again. "Ah! Got it. Plan B." He chuckled again before gesturing Harry toward the table set up in his yard. "After you then, oh great owl magician."

-MR-

"You see kids, there's this ghost that follows me around." Harry leaned forward slightly, prompting the kids to do the same. Personally, he was just glad they had started reacting more normally (read with childish noise and enthusiasm) after he had started with a few magic tricks. It had been about twenty minutes and Michael's sister still hadn't shown up, but the kids had seemed to be getting restless so Harry had gotten started. If worst came to worst, he could always do his first few tricks again when she arrived. So he had sent Hedwig up to perch on the edge of the house's roof and started in on his limited routine.

Glancing around theatrically, Harry suddenly jerked and pointed off to his right, drawing the kids' attention that way. "There he was! Did you see him?" When the kids invariably answered in the negative, Harry kept moving his eyes, acting as though he was following the movements of the "ghost."

Finally, after a few more attempts at pointing out the faux spirit, Harry continued with his trick. Grunting to himself, Harry lightly smacked his own forehead. "Oh, that's right, I'm the only one who can see him like this. I keep forgetting." He shook his head sorrowfully before perking up. "But I think I know a way to help you guys see what he can do. You see, this ghost follows me around because he likes my magic, but what he really likes is to help me in my tricks."

While the children stared attentively, Harry reached into his pocket and pulled out a half-dollar coin. Holding the in his left hand, Harry began tracking the "ghost" with his eyes again. "Alright, now I just need to…" moving swiftly and making a few of the kids jump, Harry snapped his right arm out, pinching at the air. "Catch him! And then…" Harry moved his pinched fingers to the coin in his other hand and pressed them into the metal. "Put him in the coin."

"And now that he's in the coin," Harry continued, idly pressing the half-dollar more firmly into his palm and pinching it there with the ball of his hand. Moving quickly before he lost his palming grip on the coin, Harry moved his right hand back and snapped his finger sharply, at the same time increasing the pressure on one edge of the coin until it slipped out and "jumped" away from his hand and into the other one. "All he wants to do is play around."

The kids and Michael let out various sounds of amazement and cheer as Harry repeated his trick several times, pressing the coin into his left palm and then letting the "ghost" jump it to his other hand when he snapped. This trick had been fairly easy for him to do, though he couldn't manage more than a foot or so in vertical height. All the same, it was more than enough to entertain the kids before him.

He wrapped up his trick by releasing the "ghost" and putting his coin away. Then, just as he was about to start another, he was interrupted by the beeping of his communicator. Moving to clasp his right hand over his watch to muffle any further noise, Harry quickly turned to Michael. "Hey, I think I may need a quick intermission. Bathroom break, you know?"

Michael didn't react at first, just staring blankly at Harry, but he was soon jumping up from his seat next to the kids and starting toward the house. "Sure, sure. Come on, I'll show you the way."

Upon reaching the house, Michael seemed to struggle a bit with the door before it opened and he led him in and, after a bit further hesitation on his part, to an open bathroom door. "Here it is. I'll just meet you back outside then, yeah?"

Harry nodded, a polite smile on his face. "Sure thing. I shouldn't be too long."

When Michael had left, Harry slipped into the bathroom and closed the door behind him. Quickly casting a wandless silencing charm on the door, Harry activated his communicator. "Harry here, what's going on?"

"Harry," Jason's voice came through sounding somewhat panicked. "Goldar and Scorpina are attacking the city and we can't get a hold of Tommy. We're outnumbered in the Megazord! We need help!"

Harry cursed inwardly. Of all the times for an attack to come. And after two weeks of silence too. "I can't get away right now, Jason, it would be way too suspicious…" Thinking quickly, Harry came to a decision. "But I might be able to send Hedwig in to help you guys out anyway. I should be able to let her grow into her Zord form even without me being morphed as long as I give her enough Grid Power. She might not be as effective as if I were there too, but…"

"But we'll take anything to help out at this point. Thanks Harry." Jason said evenly, even as Harry heard the other Rangers making various noises in the background, presumably reacting to another attack from Goldar or Scorpina.

"Not a problem. I'll send Hedwig on her way and try to wrap things up here as quickly as I can so I can join you guys."

"Alright, Harry, just hurry!" And with that, the communicator deactivated.

Frowning slightly, Harry reached out to Hedwig mentally. – _Did you get that, Hedwig? The others need your help._ -

Hedwig sent a mental sigh before responding. – _I heard, Harry/Wizard, and I will go and help our friends, but you must be careful. I still do not like the feel of these… these Not-People…_ -

Harry's frown only deepened. – _You mean you're getting the same feeling from the kids too?_ -

- _I am, Harry/Wizard. They stopped moving as much as soon as you went inside, but the adult not-person is staring at me now._ -

Well, that was certainly strange. What was going on here? Shaking himself, Harry drew on the Grid's Power and passed it along to his familiar. – _Alright, Hedwig. You go on ahead. I may have to feign illness or something and get out of here sooner rather than later._ -

Harry almost felt Hedwig's relief as she spoke. – _Good. I shall go on and assist our friends with the Yellow-Plated Monkey and Bug-Lady. Join us as soon as you can._ -

Harry nodded before removing the silencing charm and flushing the toilet for effect. He ran the sink for a bit before turning it off again and making his way back out of the house and to the door. Just before he got there, Michael appeared in the still open doorway looking slightly panicked. "Harry!" he said, sounding surprised and worried. "Your bird just flew off, mon!"

Harry gave him a reassuring smile and nodded. "Yeah, she's probably just hunting or something. She'll find her way back later on. She always does. Though I guess it's a good thing that the kids have liked the magic so far since my backup plan just took off."

Harry's comments seemed to calm the man a bit and he gestured for Harry to precede him out the door. Raising an eyebrow, Harry followed the man's lead, hearing the door close behind him as Michael followed him out. Feeling unusually paranoid now, Harry moved over to the table where his supplies were set out only for his eyes to snag on the children beyond it.

The children who were standing in two even rows of four and staring blankly at him.

The children who seemed to be twitching every so often, tilting their heads this way and that as if examining him.

The children that, in a sudden flash of light, turned into a group of eight three foot tall putty patrollers.

"Shit!" Harry cursed, taking a fighting stance while his mind raced on how he would deal with the eight pint sized putties on his own while still protecting Michael as necessary.

"You're really not too smart of a Power Rangah', are you mon?"

Then Harry felt a strong blow to the back of his head and his world went dark.

-MR-

Harry came to with a groan, immediately lifting a hand to the back of his head in an attempt to soothe the pain he felt there.

"Ah… Awake at last, eh Mageling?"

Harry's eyes went wide when Goldar's voice registered through his pain and grogginess. "What the…" Looking around himself quickly, Harry vaguely recognized the foggy ground and green columns with gold bars of Rita's Dark Dimension prison. Harry blinked as the dots connected for him and he forced himself to his feet with a growl.

"So it was a trap then?" Harry asked rhetorically. "All so you guys could catch me? I have to say, I'm flattered Goldar."

The armored simian smirked at Harry as he paced nearby. "The reason behind your capture will become clear all too soon, Mageling. Suffice to say that my Empress has great plans for you."

"Oh yeah?" Harry asked, reaching around and into his back pocket for his Power Coin. "And what makes you think that I'll just come along quietly.

When his searching hand came up empty, Harry's heart sank slightly. When Goldar opened his own clenched fist to reveal Harry's coin it was overtaken by dread. "Looking for this, Mageling? I assure you that you have little other choice than to 'come along quietly.'"

Harry merely scowled, a reaction that only seemed to amuse the armored monster. "What, nothing to say?" Goldar mocked him as he stepped closer, his fist once more closing around the coin to prevent Harry from snatching it. "Where are your taunts and cocky attitude now, Mageling?" Goldar then launched a punch into Harry's stomach. The blow was nowhere near the monster's full strength, but it was more than enough to drop the unprepared Ranger to his knees.

Goldar laughed over Harry's wheezing as he struggled back to his feet, determined to show as little weakness as possible. "Your only hope of survival now, Mageling, is to do exactly as my Empress commands."

Nearly hating himself for the necessity, Harry asked the obvious question. "And what, precisely, might that be?"

Goldar's superior smirk overtook his whole face. "Come along and find out, Mageling." Goldar reached behind his back with the hand not holding Harry's coin captive and retrieved a familiar looking orb that he then held out toward Harry. It was the same, or at least a similar looking, device that Harry had seen Goldar use to travel to and from the Dark Dimension when he had been here to rescue Jason more than three months before.

Knowing what Goldar wanted and refusing to give the simian the opportunity to order it, Harry reached out and touched the orb and soon after was enveloped in a flash of green light.

-MR-

From the control room off of the Dark Dimension, Goldar led Harry, escorted by a few putties (regular sized ones this time), back along the hallway he vaguely remembered and out onto the balcony area with Rita's telescope. There the two found Rita waiting, pacing back and forth with her scepter making a soft clinking noise every other step.

Harry's eyes were invariably drawn to the Elder Wand, still fused with the orb of her staff with the tip piercing through the outer ring. He had seen it several times since he arrived in this dimension and it was stolen, but each time he had been unable to retrieve it. But there was always the potential, no matter how slim, that he could retrieve it now. What better opportunity than when he had been taken to the heart of her fortress after all. The trick would be getting ahold of it and still being able to escape, which would call for ensuring a method of escape in the first place.

Harry's plotting was interrupted when Rita began speaking as she walked down the few steps from the balcony railing. "Welcome to my palace once again Mageling, although this time by invitation."

Harry rolled his eyes. "Oh yeah, lovely place you have here, Rita. The service needs some work though. Not a very polite manner." He idly jerked his thumb over his shoulder to where Goldar was standing sentry by the door.

Rita's smile didn't falter. "Charming as always… I must say that I was unsure of the Twin Man's ability to carry out my plan, but results speak for themselves, wouldn't you say?"

At first, Harry thought she had still been talking to him, but when a familiar accented voice called out from a shadowed corner of the room he discovered otherwise. "Of course, my Empress. I live but to serve you."

"Michael?" Harry asked, confusion in his expression. "But… what? What's going on here?"

Michael smirked before his form blurred slightly and then let out a burst of light that left Harry blinking away spots. When his vision cleared, the dark skinned man was replaced by a humanoid monster that appeared to be made of metal or glass. Its shape was largely that of a human, but with a pair of large pauldrons extending over its shoulders and a pointed head with what looked like a very tall, pointed shirt collar coming up around it. It had no real face to speak of, only a pair of red eyes and a vaguely nose like protrusion set into a blank, expressionless plain. "I'm afraid you fell for my illusion, Magi Ranger. I am the Twin Man and I can take on the form of anything I choose."

Rita's cackling laughter brought Harry's attention back to her. "Yes, the Twin Man is one of my most powerful monsters ever. I have big plans for his powers of duplication, but you have much more important things to be concerned with now. Which brings me to the entire point behind my bringing you here. You see Mageling, ever since we fought on that rooftop before you Rangers stole my Green Ranger from me, I have been studying your magic."

Rita returned to her pacing as she spoke, seemingly oblivious to all else. "Initially, it was in an effort to learn how you were able to redirect and overpower my own spells, but when I found what I believe to be the reason, it opened up an entirely new avenue." Rita turned to face him fully, a wicked gleam in her eye as he lips stretched into a smile. "Because of the lovely wand I acquired from you, I can use your form of magic as well."

Harry's eyes widened involuntarily at her statement. It was true that he had only survived their rooftop encounter because of the hint of the Elder Wand's magic within her own spells, but how did that equate to her being able to use his brand of magic?

Seeing his reaction, Rita's evil smile changed to a cocky smirk before she continued. "Of course it isn't as simple as all that. While you have been puttering about with Zordon and his teachings, learning to access the Grid and the Power, I have found a way to channel my own Power in such a way as to mimic the signature of your natural magic. With this at my disposal, I believe that I will be able to utilize your own brand of highly versatile spells." Her look changed once more, this time to one of eager anticipation. "With your magic at my disposal, I will be completely unstoppable! Nothing in the entire Galaxy will be able to stand against my might!"

Rita froze for a moment, arms raised in celebration and her eyes closed, most likely envisioning her perceived future. Then, after a bit, she relaxed again, her eyes meeting Harry's once more. "Which brings me to your purpose here. You will teach me all you know about your magic and how to use it."

Harry blinked once and then again as he processed Rita's demand. "Err… I'm gonna go with a 'no' on that one."

Rita's face, as opposed to the fury he was expecting, shifted to a sort of smug superiority. "I had anticipated that response, young wizard, and so I took precautions. GOLDAR!"

"Yes your evilness…" Goldar's voice rumbled out before Harry found himself restrained by a Putty on each arm. Before he could react, he felt Goldar's presence just before something was slipped around his neck from behind and locked in place with an audible click.

The two putties released him almost immediately and Harry's hands lifted to the new object around his throat. His fingers had barely brushed it when he felt a pulse of magic from it that was immediately followed by the most intensely painful sensation he had ever felt.

Harry dropped to the ground, writhing in pain as he screamed. This was worse than Voldemort's Cruciatus Curse! The moments seemed to stretch on into eternity until finally, blessedly, the pain stopped and Harry found himself rolled over onto his back by a kick from a smirking Goldar with Rita standing nearby.

"What you are now wearing, Mageling, is known as a subservience collar." Rita explained with a smirk of her own. "It is a wonderful tool created by dark magics that is used to… let's say ensure the cooperation of those who might be less than willing."

"Great…" Harry mumbled, still regaining his wits after feeling the collar's effects.

Rita continued on, either ignoring or ignorant of his comment. "So this is the situation you now find yourself in. You will teach me your brand of magic. Every time you refuse, you will be punished by the collar. This is a completely autonomous function. It activates every time you refuse a command from the one it is attuned to, in this case, me." Rita's smirk was going full force now, her confidence in the superiority of her position clearly visible in her expression.

It was a confidence that Harry currently felt unable to dispute.

With a nod from Rita, the two putties from before stepped forward and heaved Harry to his feet. "I shall give you some time to ponder your new reality, Mageling, and to put together your lesson plans of course. I expect you to give me your best efforts. Your very life depends on it after all."

Harry, his mind racing, voiced the first thought that came to him. "And what if you're wrong? What if you can't really mimic my spells and there's nothing I can teach you?"

Rita's smirk remained unchanged as she signaled for the putties to release Harry again, letting him stand on slightly unsteady legs. "I see I shall have to offer you proof then. I have been watching you, Mageling, and I picked up a few spells just from that. Observe."

Rita turned to face her oversized telescope sitting near the edge of her balcony. While Harry watched, equal parts horrified and intrigued, Rita jabbed her scepter so that the tip of the Elder Wand pointed directly toward the telescope and released a tremendous burst of Power. Power that felt distinctly _magical_ as Harry first knew it. " _Wingardium Leviosa!_ "

Harry's horror overtook his interest as he watched the telescope shudder once, twice, three times, before finally lifting unsteadily off the ground a few inches and hovering there.

So there it was. Rita's spell was disgustingly overpowered, probably because she lacked the knowledge to make it work properly without that, but she was capable of using Wizarding magic.

And Harry was being forced to teach her all he knew.

-MR-

Thanks for reading and don't forget to review,

Tenstar12


	32. Chapter 32

Magi Ranger

By: Tenstar12

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or Power Rangers.

 **Chapter 32, In Which Harry Embraces his Inner Professor**

Harry's first evening of captivity set the stage for the rest of his time in Rita's palace. Rita had taken possession of his Power Coin from Goldar and led the procession of herself, Harry, Goldar, and a half dozen putties through the corridors of her lunar palace to a room that she told him would be his quarters and classroom all in one.

The room itself was similar in size to the Command Center's main room, standing nearly thirty feet on each wall with the ceiling around ten feet high. As far as features, there really were none. The walls, floor and ceiling of the room were all solid, unmarked stone. Leading the group to a shadowed corner, Rita gestured to a stone slab sticking out of the wall that Harry hadn't immediately noticed and indicated that that was where he would be sleeping.

Seeing the wicked grin on Goldar's face accompanied by the smug superiority on Rita's, Harry walked over to the slab and waved his hand briefly, casting a cushioning charm (and leaving his fingers feeling a bit "feathery") before lying down. "Hmm… surprisingly comfortable."

Goldar's scowl and Rita's triumphant look were the first sign that Harry had goofed already. "Ah… I had suspected that you were capable of fociless magic beyond your combat spells, Mageling, though it has been so long since I've seen you use it that I wasn't too sure. Still, since you were so kind as to reveal this skill…"

Harry cursed inwardly as he slowly sat up, watching the contemplative villain uneasily. Finally, after a few more seconds, Rita nodded to herself decisively and focused on him again. "Listen well, Mageling. If you wish to avoid feeling the effects of the collar again, these are the commands that you will have to follow. First, you will not use fociless magic again unless absolutely required for the purposes of teaching me your magic. Second, any time you come into possession of your Power Coin, you will not morph or use it against anyone in my palace, again unless necessary for teaching me your magic. Third, you will not leave this room without an escort. Fourth, you will not leave the palace under any circumstances unless told otherwise by myself. Fifth, you will answer any and all questions I ask you about your magic when I ask them and will teach me your brand of magic to the best of your ability. Any questions?"

Harry winced as Rita lay out the terms of his capture. With the collar on, he wouldn't be able to go against her commands without setting it off, and with her forbidding his wandless magic he didn't see any obvious route to getting rid of the collar. Still, she had all but admitted that he'd find himself in possession of his Power Coin again, so perhaps there was a chance.

He was torn out of his thoughts by Goldar yanking him up from his seated position and shaking him in midair. "The Empress asked you a question, Mageling!"

Harry just stared at Goldar blankly for a moment before shaking his head. Ignoring the armored monkey still holding him up, he turned his head toward Rita. "No, I think everything seems fairly clear."

Rita nodded sharply before turning to leave. "Very well then, Mageling. We shall leave you to begin putting together your lesson plans. I shall see you again tomorrow. Come, Goldar." Rita completed her exit with a cackle that managed to make the hairs on the back of Harry's neck stand up.

Goldar brought Harry slightly closer to his face, glaring to his eyes. "Know this, Mageling. My Empress may have a use for you for now, but that won't last forever. And when your usefulness runs out I will be the first in line to remove your head!"

"You're welcome to try, Goldar." Harry shot back, resorting to taunting for lack of another option. "Merlin knows you've been doing so ever since we first met anyway."

Goldar growled and seemed about to speak when Rita's voice rang through the room from the doorway. "GOLDAR!" The simian seemed to flinch slightly before growling and unceremoniously dropping Harry and smirking as the wizard fell to the ground. Without another comment, the monster turned and marched out of the room, disappearing into the shadowed hallway beyond.

Harry clambered back to his feet, his mind racing. There wasn't an actual door to be closed, so his first instinct was to try and leave. Moving swiftly and as silently as he could, Harry made his way to the doorway, waiting several more seconds just to make sure that Goldar was actually out of sight, before easing forward.

The instant that his foot slid across the threshold, he felt a tiny pulse of magic from the collar before he was once again consumed by unimaginable, nerve burning pain. Luckily enough, when he collapsed to the floor, his foot was drawn back into the room as he instinctively curled into the fetal position and the pain stopped instantly.

After a minute or two of panting and cringing at phantom remnants of the pain, Harry sighed. "Right…" he mumbled. "Don't leave the room. Dammit." Harry had been so focused on not being "allowed" to use his wandless magic that he hadn't even fully processed the rest of Rita's dictates.

Once more returning to his feet, though with a slight groan this time from the residual pain, Harry staggered to the stone slab that was to be his bed and laid back. He needed a plan, but found himself unable to come up with anything solid. Eventually, the physical exhaustion brought on by the recent torture from the collar, plus mental exhaustion from the rest of his day, led to Harry drifting to sleep.

-MR-

"Wake up, Mageling!" Rita's none to pleasant voice ripped Harry from his rest, making him nearly bolt from his bed and into a fighting stance, his hands brought up in preparation to cast or punch, whichever was more appropriate. It took several moments before Rita's smug visage registered to him and he had to fight down the instinct to follow through on his attack as the memory of his current situation reasserted itself.

Straightening himself up, Harry fought to refrain from voicing any attitude and answered her as calmly as he could manage. "Rita… What can I do for you?"

Rita's expression remained unchanged as she responded. "I'm here for my first lesson, Mageling."

Harry's sudden wide-eyed expression certainly had an impact as Rita began scowling. "You are prepared for our first lesson, aren't you?"

Harry still didn't respond, his mind switching back and forth between trying to think up something to teach her and "Oh boy, this is gonna hurt…"

Rita's scowl changed to a thoughtful look for a moment before she smiled again. "Ah, I see. I failed to directly order you to prepare for today before I left last night. A mistake I shall not make again, I assure you." She glared at him momentarily before changing back to a neutral look as she began pacing nearby. "Very well, instead, why don't you tell me about your magic? What will you be showing me how to do?"

Rita, Harry noted, seemed to take a great deal of pleasure in implying that he was teaching her willingly. It was not an ineffective psychological tactic, he mused, but it was really more annoying than anything else. He wasn't happy about this situation, though that went without saying, but he also knew that until he managed to come up with some kind of plan, really anything at this point, he was stuck working within Rita's constraints. That meant keeping her appeased as long as possible.

But could he really manage that without teaching her anything truly dangerous?

Knowing that he had to respond lest she do something to activate the subservience collar again, or have it activate on its own for his failure to answer at all, Harry took a breath and began speaking. "In my world, young magicals began attending a school of magic at the age of eleven. Some students were raised in a magical environment beforehand and so knew about magic already, but I was among the group that did not. The school I went to, Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, offered a seven-year program where we were taught about the different disciplines of magic and the most common spells and techniques within each of those disciplines."

Rita now began looking interested, so Harry pressed on. "The core subjects taught at Hogwarts were Transfiguration, Charms, Defense Against the Dark Arts, Potions, History of Magic, Herbology, and Astronomy. Starting in our third year, we were given the opportunity to take elective courses. These were Ancient Runes, Arithmancy, Divination, Care of Magical Creatures, and Muggle Studies. Of these subjects, some of them are outside my ability to teach."

The sorceress cut him off. "Why is that? If you're refusing to teach me something you know, remember that the collar will activate."

Harry did his best to fight down his flinch at the mention of the collar, but the amusement on Rita's face led him to believe that he was less than successful. Still, he was a bit more awake now and his mind was racing to find a way to explain the subjects, but still get him out of teaching her too much that was useful. "I never took any classes on Ancient Runes, Arithmancy, or Muggle Studies during my time at school."

Rita took another thoughtful look before speaking. "And after you left school? Do not lie to me!"

Harry cursed internally before doing his best to deflect. "I learned a bit about Runes, but nothing that is immediately useful." In truth, most of what he had been taught by Moody and the Order, how to make his expanded room in the Command Center and the basics behind his patchwork wand among other things, would be immensely useful to Rita, just not necessarily 'immediately.' When the collar failed to react to his lack of elaboration he let himself breathe a bit easier. It seemed the key was to tell only part of the truth, lying only by omission as it were. He just hoped that the witch didn't think to dig deeper into the present subject.

"Arithmancy is a form of magical mathematics that is used to break down the fundamentals of a spell. I suppose it could be described as a way to quantify magic as I know it, but as I never even attempted to study it I really don't know for sure. As for Muggle Studies, it was the Wizarding point of view on non-magical life. The class was tremendously out of date and I could have probably taught the class myself just based on what I knew from being raised in the non-magical world."

For her part, Rita merely hummed thoughtfully before shaking her head dismissively and tapping her scepter on the stone floor. "What of the other disciplines at your school. How might they be useful?"

"Herbology, Potions, and Care of Magical Creatures focused on the native plants and animals of my world and their magical properties and effects. Without those plants and animals, any information I could give you on those would be useless. History of Magic was about the past of my Wizarding society, again not much practical use there. Astronomy, aside from teaching us constellations and the like, dealt with how the stars and their alignment affect the other magical disciplines, but most of these effects are outside the realm of active spellcasting, having more effect on Herbology and Creatures than the others. Divination as I know it is only usable by those who have an innate gift for the subject and so I can't really relate much of that to you either."

When Harry stopped talking, Rita merely waited. Her patience, however, only lasted a handful of seconds before she snapped. "And the others!?"

Harry continued without emotion. "Transfiguration is the magical art of changing one thing into another thing, either animate or inanimate. It is also one of the most dangerous and difficult classes we had. Defense Against the Dark Arts dealt with protecting ourselves against magical threats, up to and including other magicals. This class is where we were taught most of the low level combat spells that I know. Charms covers almost all other expressed magic not included in the other two subjects. It involves spells to change appearance, motion, behavior, and several other general purpose spells. Most of the versatility in my magic comes from Charms."

Rita's face split into her gruesome smile again. "Ah… Then that is where we shall start, with those last three disciplines. Take the rest of today to decide on the best way to teach me these spells and prepare accordingly. Make sure you do it properly as well. I will not suffer you wasting my time in a futile hope of giving the rest of those pathetic Power Brats a chance to rescue you." Rita paused for a moment before reaching into her voluminous robes and pulling out Harry's Power Coin. "I will return this to you so that you can properly prepare this room. Remember my rules, Mageling. I would hate for the collar to torture you into insanity before I had a chance to learn from you." And then she left, cackling to herself the whole way.

-MR-

Harry spent his first hour or so pondering his situation. It wasn't until he felt the slightest burst of pain from the collar that he realized that he was breaking one of Rita's commands. She had ordered that he spend the day preparing to teach her what he knew, and pondering his situation was not a part of that. The collar took orders very literally, but that was something he could use.

He had already discovered that he could simply leave out bits of information, so long as Rita didn't press for more detail. That could end up being his biggest asset. He might be able to lead her into making a mistake with a spell that would have less than pleasant results for herself and give him an opportunity at the same time.

Another pulse from the collar put that thought to rest. After another moment of pondering, he realized that he had also been ordered to teach her properly, which meant no intentional misleading.

Oh well, he could work with that too. Harry smirked as he shifted his coin into wand form and began whipping it around, conjuring and transfiguring what he felt he would need to properly teach Rita, his plans growing in his mind with each wave of his wand.

-MR-

"Please have a seat, Miss Repulsa." Harry intoned from his position behind a heavy wooden desk opposite the door. He had portioned off the large room he was given into two smaller ones. The one the doorway opened into had been changed into an approximation of a Hogwarts classroom, teacher's desk and a number of student desks included. While the room was a bit on the smaller size given the room he had had to work with, it was still more than adequate for a class of one.

"What's going on here, Mageling…?" Goldar growled as he followed Rita into the room. The witch herself looked equal parts confused and amused as she looked around the room, taking in the blackboard on the wall and the assorted banners and decorations around the room featuring four different Earth animals.

Harry met Goldar's eyes evenly. "I was ordered to find the best way to teach my magical skills, and I came to the conclusion that the best way I could do so was the way I was taught in the first place." Harry was doing his best to channel the ever proper Professor McGonagall. He had originally considered acting like Snape, but ultimately decided that, aside from the fact that he considered the man to be one of the worst teachers he had ever had and thus his lessons and teaching style weren't "proper," Rita would end up reacting poorly to being called a dunderhead repeatedly. So to avoid retribution from both the subservience collar and his captors, he felt it was better to choose another model to work from.

Goldar seemed about to respond when Rita idly raised a hand, signaling for quiet. "We'll let the human play his little game, Goldar. The collar isn't reacting, so he still intends to teach properly. If he wants a little stage play to make himself feel better, then I'll allow it."

Harry inwardly seethed at Rita's smug comment, but remained outwardly calm. His plan was to stall for as much time as he could. In the right hands, even the simplest of spells could be dangerous to the unprepared, so he had to avoid teaching Rita as much as he could. So long as he made sure to properly teach what he actually was forced to, the collar shouldn't react.

It was time to see if his first ploy would work out.

Once Rita had situated herself in one of the desks, having to tuck her voluminous robes around her to fit, and Goldar had moved to stand in a back corner, Harry walked around his desk to stand before her. "I felt it would be best to start with the spell you have already demonstrated and make sure you can cast it correctly."

"I already know how to use the floating spell. Move on to something else!" Rita snapped, looking insulted at his comment about correct casting and her lack therof.

"I beg to differ." Harry said simply before gesturing to a small table to one side of the room with a single feather resting atop it.

"When I was taught the _Levitation Charm_ ," he emphasized the proper name for the spell, making Rita grind her teeth in further frustration. "We used feathers, most likely to prevent us from hurting anyone if we lost control of the spell." Harry flicked his wand, silently summoning the feather to his hand and turning to place it on his desk before moving to one side. "Observe. _Wingardium Leviosa_." Harry kept his wand pointed straight at the feather the entire time and made sure to cast the spell as quietly as he could without being completely silent, hoping that Rita couldn't clearly hear the incantation. When he then began to raise his wand tip upward, the feather rose steadily off the table and up into the air, always going exactly where Harry pointed his wand to. After a lap around the room, Harry directed the feather back down to his desk where it landed softly.

"Now, if you would demonstrate your technique, Miss Repulsa?" Harry gestured with his left hand toward the feather while subtly tapping his wand on the desk with his right, activating the inlaid sticking charm on the desk to hold the feather in place and, just in case, to hold the desk to the floor. It was misdirection at its finest and arguably one of the most useful things he had learned from his stage magic books.

Rita slid out of the desk seat with a growl before jabbing her scepter at an odd angle to get the Elder Wand pointing toward the feather. " _WINGARDIUM LEVIOSA_!" Just as before, Harry noted the absolutely obscene amounts of magic she was wasting in her attempts to make the simple spell work. He was forced to hide a smile though as the feather didn't even twitch.

After nearly a minute, Rita cut her spell and rounded on Harry in frustration. "WHAT DID YOU DO!? WHY DIDN'T MY SPELL WORK!?"

Here was the most delicate part of his entire plan. "I did nothing to the feather other than conjure it, but I think the root of this problem lies in that very fact. Since I conjured it from nothing, it is made entirely of my own magic. Because of that, and the fact that we aren't exactly the best of friends, the magic in the feather actively resists your own attempts to cast on it. When you combine that with your absolutely horrendous technique…"

Rita stomped right up to Harry and glared at him nose to nose. "Do not taunt me, Mageling. There is nothing wrong with my spellcasting technique. I have been using magic since before you were even born!"

Harry fought down the urge to swallow in nervousness. "While that may be true, you haven't been using my kind of magic. There are different techniques that must be used if one is to get the proper results. Techniques that you don't know as of yet."

"Then why didn't you show me these techniques in the first place!?"

"Because I knew that you wouldn't believe me, so I felt a proper demonstration was called for. It was a tactic used by one of my teachers when the students thought they knew better than them." In truth, Moody had used such tactics on Ron when he had started to slack off on his training. He felt that he had learned all Moody had to teach him and that he didn't need to stay in practice to stay effective. The mad Auror had taken to ambushing Ron at all hours of the day while they were at Grimmauld Place until Ron had ultimate admitted defeat and started taking things seriously again. It was a tentative connection at best, but it seemed to be enough for the collar to not call him out on it in a most painful fashion.

Rita merely growled. "You're holding information back from me. You aren't teaching me properly!"

Harry raised one eyebrow, his face remaining as blank as he could manage. "The fact that I'm not writhing in pain at the moment suggests otherwise."

Rita's scowl deepened before she stomped back to the desk she had claimed. "And what of the problems with the feather? How do you propose we deal with that?"

Harry shrugged. "We, or rather you I imagine, will simply have to obtain some actual feathers from somewhere. They cannot have been directly influenced by magic of any kind to enable the best results."

Rita growled again before raising her voice. "SQUATT! BABOO!" Her shout echoed painfully in the room and Harry found himself unable to resist a wince of pain.

Mere moments later, the two bumbling monsters came rushing into the classroom, not quite stopping fast enough to avoid crashing into the backmost desks and ending up in a heap on the floor.

"Yes, your evilness…" Baboo moaned from underneath Squatt's bulk.

Rita paid no attention to their predicament. "Go down to Earth and find me some feathers." She turned back to Harry and raised an eyebrow.

"The larger the better, though not too obscenely large. Less than a foot in length as possible."

The two minions exchanged a glance as they struggled back to their feet before nodding to Rita simultaneously. "Of course, Rita! We'll get you the featheriest feathers on the whole planet!" Squatt nearly cheered before leading the charge back out of the room.

Harry did his best to ignore the two, merely waving his wand to repair the destroyed desks once they were out of sight.

"In the future, Mageling…" Rita turned back to face Harry fully. "You will inform me of any materials required before our lessons so that they can be acquired ahead of time."

Harry suppressed a smirk as he moved behind his desk again, idly tapping it with his wand to dispel the sticking charm before opening a drawer and removing a sheet of conjured parchment. He came back around the desk again and passed the parchment to Rita. "I have already taken the liberty of making a list. The items on here should be enough for our first several lessons. Once we need more, usually for Transfiguration, I'll have another list."

He had hoped to use the same "We need materials" gimmick to stall for as much time as possible, but his logical side had pointed out that Rita probably wouldn't stand for that more than once, so he had prepared the list as a contingency. Frankly, at this point, he was just glad that his ruse to obtain the materials he felt he needed didn't count against him for whatever spells drove the collar. His sabotage of the feather could have ruined the entire plan if it hadn't worked out. Though it probably helped that his excuse about conjuring the feather had been true, if somewhat misleading as it would take more magic than what was in the feather to directly interfere with Rita's.

Nodding once and tucking the parchment into her robes after glancing over it only briefly, the witch once more turned her full attention back to her unwilling tutor. "Now…" she said, sliding slowly back into her desk with much tucking and pulling on her robes. "Tell me of these spellcasting techniques."

The next hour was spent going over the basics of Wizarding spellcasting. He spoke of wand movements and proper pronunciation mostly, with overall less time spent on intent and magical power since he knew Rita wouldn't have as much trouble with that and likely wouldn't care for him wasting time rehashing things she already knew. When he mentioned the specific requirements of the levitation charm, Rita had demanded to know why he hadn't gone through any of the techniques for his demonstration.

Harry was, thankfully, prepared for this as well. "You're comparing yourself to someone with nine years' experience with these types of spells. The techniques I'm explaining are for the most basic of witches and wizards, typically the eleven year olds. While you are superior to most firsties in some cases, particularly in your power, in other ways, you're no better off than the muggleborns right off the train in their first classes. You know nothing of this brand of magic besides what you've convinced yourself of, incorrectly I might add. Once you become more skilled with the spells, you can drop parts of it, typically the verbal incantation and parts of the wand movement. For a spell as simple as the levitation charm, a knowledgeable wizard doesn't need any of the techniques. Trying to avoid using them, or doing so out of ignorance as you did, means that there must be a compensation of some sort from one of the other requirements. In your case, you used far too much magic to make such a simple spell work and even then got sub-par results."

Rita had looked furious for a moment, and Goldar had seemed more than a bit disappointed when Harry hadn't dropped to the ground under the collar's influence, but they had both calmed down after a few moments. Nothing Harry had said was a lie and it was mixed with just enough scorn as per McGonagall at her most affronted that it qualified as proper teaching too.

Once they had settled that, he moved on to the specifics of wand movements. He anticipated this to be one of the more difficult aspects for Rita seeing as the wand she was using was mounted at an angle at the top of a scepter as long as she was tall. This would make the assorted twists, flicks, and swishes a bit more difficult to perform.

He had a brief hope that Rita would remove the Elder Wand from her scepter to make things easier for herself. If she did so, Harry was confident that he would be able to summon it from her as he would be casting magic on the wand and not on her which was forbidden by her command. If he was able to do so and then deal with the collar with the Elder Wand before it could activate, he would be able to show her exactly what his magic could do with a wand made exclusively for that type of magic

His hopes were dashed however as Rita's stubbornness led to her finding the exact way she needed to hold her staff and move it to get the necessary wand movements. Some of them were incredibly awkward and far from practical, particularly swishes and twists, but she had taken Harry's words to heart that she would be able to do without after some practice.

Harry just took solace in the fact that her adjusted wand movements took much longer than they should and made her look ridiculous.

When Harry was at least passably satisfied with her wand movements, they moved on to the incantation portion of her problem. In this case, he channeled his best Hermione. "You're problem here is that you're saying it almost completely wrong. It's Win-GAR-dium Levi-O-sa. Make sure you pay attention to the 'Leviosa.' It's not 'Levio-SA.' And make the 'gar' nice and long too."

Rita was not pleased.

Finally, after another hour or so of drilling the frustrated witch on the basics of one of the most basic of all charms, Squatt and Baboo returned, each carrying (and dropping with each step) an armful of colorful feathers. "Here they are, your evilness!" Baboo announced just before tripping over the desks once again, although this time is was because at least some of his vision was blocked by the feathers.

"Yeah! Yeah! We got a bunch!" Squatt followed him in before, predictably, tripping over the prone Baboo and smashing him into the floor again.

Harry found himself comparing the two to Bulk and Skull in his head. Both groups certainly had their fair share of fumbles and falls.

With the feathers now present, and once the two minions were sent away again, Harry set to teaching Rita how to properly levitate a feather. It was a long process that caused no small amount of frustration on the witch's part as she worked to refine her adjusted wand movements to allow for the spell to work without expending grotesque amounts of Power in the process.

By the time she was able to consistently levitate the feather, the two had been working on that one project for five hours and both were more than ready for a break.

"I shall return again tomorrow, Mageling." Rita said gruffly. She had been rather frustrated with the slow pace of her lesson that day and had more than made that apparent with her complaints each time the levitation charm failed to work. "In the meantime, you will return your Power Coin to me."

Harry once more fought down a wince. He had hoped to be able to keep his wand with him, but he knew it had been a longshot at best. Thinking quickly, Harry placed the wand between his two palms and applied a bit of magic as he pressed inward, making the wand glow and compress as it returned to its coin form. If he had to hand it over, there was no way he was doing so in a form that Rita might be able to actually use. There's no telling if his coin wand, being made to use both his magic and the Power, would work better for her than the Elder Wand did, but he definitely didn't want to find out.

Taking the coin from Harry, Rita turned and walked out of the room. "Until tomorrow, Mageling. I certainly hope you have our next lesson planned by then."

Harry let out a sigh of relief before a flash of movement made him realize that Goldar hadn't left the room yet. He turned to face the monster only for pain to overtake him as Goldar drove his right fist into Harry's stomach. "I think you'll find that playing games isn't wise, Mageling." Goldar let Harry fall to his knees, clutching his undoubtedly bruised midsection as he doubled over with a gasp. "You may have found a way to work around the subservience collar, but sooner or later my empress will learn what she wants from you. And then I shall have the great pleasure of disposing of you myself!"

Having said his piece, Goldar turned and stomped out of the classroom, leaving Harry lying on the floor and struggling to catch his breath.

-MR-

The next day, after a fitful night of sleep, Harry decided to do a quick review of the Levitation Charm, hoping that the time that had passed might result in enough backslide to call for more practice and therefore more time killed. Unfortunately, Rita managed the spell properly her first time and Harry was forced to move on to his next intended subject. His next hope was that by doing a different subject each day and only teaching a single lesson or spell each day, he could buy still more time with reviewing and rehashing the same topics over and over. If her difficulties with the levitation charm held true then he might even be able to get away with it without her forcing him to move on to another spell after she figured out his first choice.

He had to teach each individual lesson as well as he could to try and impart the knowledge to the evil witch, but that didn't mean he had to do it in a way that was necessarily easy for her to learn.

And so it was that the two, with a golden-armored sentry, set about Rita's second lesson in Wizarding Magic.

"NO! This is ridiculous! Why would I want to learn something like this?! How is this even remotely useful?!"

"Look, Rita, you wanted me to teach you these things, and the only way I know to do that is the way I was taught back in school."

"I don't want to learn THIS! I want to learn spells that will help me spread chaos and destruction all over the galaxy! This does me no good at all!"

"Alright, Rita, let's try it your way then. How about an exploding curse. It's a fifth year spell and is one of the few purely offensive spells I learned in my basic schooling. You've undoubtedly watched me use it before, yes? You cast it with a simple jab of your wand toward the target with a counter clockwise quarter twist in mid motion. Like so. _Bombarda_!" Harry said, careful to put the accent on the third syllable in the incantation as opposed to the second where it was supposed to go while silently casting the spell properly in his mind so he got the right result despite his improper verbal incantation.

Rita watched the spell arc across the room, striking a putty patroller that was standing next to the door, apparently as a guard. When the spell hit, the putty exploded into shrapnel and Rita's eyes danced with eagerness and excitement. When Harry gestured for Rita to try, he watched, somewhat amused, as Rita jabbed her scepter toward a second putty with the Elder Wand pointing the way. Because of the angle the wand was mounted in the scepter, Rita had to rotate her entire staff at an awkward angle to get the necessary rotation for the spell, but she managed all the same. When she attempted to cast the spell, using the same accent that Harry had verbalized, and nothing happened, she wheeled to face him with fury in her face.

"You must be teaching me wrong! Why didn't the spell work?!"

Harry sighed as he repeated himself from the previous day. "If I had been teaching you wrong, the collar would have dropped me to the ground, as you well know. The spell didn't work because you aren't ready for that level of magic yet. You have to start from the beginning, which is what I was trying to tell you in the first place. So, matches to needles, let's go."

-MR-

"And today we'll get into some of what I learned in Defense Against the Dark Arts."

"Ah… Finally something useful in combat!"

"Quite… So, the Tickling Charm is cast thusly…"

-MR-

"Today, we'll be going over a spell I've had to use pretty much every time Squatt and Baboo come in here. That should provide an excellent opportunity for you to practice. The Mending Charm is really quite simple…"

-MR-

"Beetles to Buttons…"

-MR-

"Today it's the _Vermillious_ charm, a charm to summon red sparks…"

-MR-

"We'll do a bit of a two part lesson today. First up is _Lumos_ , a spell for lighting up your wand tip. Coupled with that is _Nox_ , which extinguishes this light…"

-MR-

"This spell is used to transfigure the target into a dragon-"

"You mean a giant fire breathing dragon!? Finally a useful spell!"

"Ah… no. These dragons can't breathe fire… or really fly either… unless the target could fly already that is… and they tend to be of similar size to the target as well… and not really very bright on top of all of that… Anyway, the incantation is _Draconifors…_ "

-MR-

"Now our DADA spell for today is-"

"I sincerely hope, Mageling, that we're going to do something different this time…"

"Oh, of course we are, Miss Repulsa. Today, we'll be covering the Verdimillious charm. Last time we made red sparks, this spell makes green sparks…"

-MR-

Harry woke groggily atop the magically cushioned stone slab he had been sleeping on since his arrival at Rita's palace. Without really thinking about it, he blindly reached over the edge and along the floor until he found a short metal spike that he had transfigured as a demonstration for Rita and then pocketed early on during his captivity. Picking the spike up, Harry turned to face the wall and scratched a tally mark into the stone surface.

Eighteen days. It had been eighteen days since he had been captured and he was honestly running out of mostly useless spells to teach her. The best utility spell he had taught her so far had been the mending charm, and even that was grudgingly. He had mostly done so in the hopes that a slightly more complex charm, in this case due to the fact that the caster had to mentally define the affected area, would slow her down some, but no such luck.

As far as combat oriented spells, he had been forced to teach her the Jelly-Legs Jinx the day before and thus spend most of the class wobbling around wherever he went, having been commanded to leave her spell in effect until it wore off on its own. Needless to say, the amount of Power Rita put behind her spells and the fact that she reapplied the spell as often as she could meant that Harry had spent most of the day sitting at his desk.

Luckily enough, there were enough seemingly useless Transfiguration lessons that actually built the caster's skill level up enough to deal with the more complicated magics that he still had plenty to choose from. It was this difference in potential lessons among the three disciplines that now had him cursing his initial decision to rotate through different subject as the days went by. If he were to change things up now then Rita would surely comment on it, likely to his detriment.

He had spent each evening after Rita's lessons and a pitiful meal delivered by putties locked in an Occlumency trance, hoping to come up with the next day's lesson before the cursed collar decided he wasn't prepared as commanded and decided to punish him for it. Such an occasion had happened a few times, and when you combined that with the times Rita had ordered him not to do something mere moments before he did so and was thusly tortured by the collar, he was more than familiar with the effect of the object.

As much as he hated to admit it, he had become somewhat afraid of the collar's effects. Never before had he been in such a position with his enemies. Heck, even Voldemort hadn't managed to capture him and have him so firmly under his control other than during his fourth year when the dark wizard was resurrected, and even then the man's own ego had allowed for Harry's escape before things got too bad.

He was pulled out of his thoughts by Rita's grating voice, summoning him to the classroom.

Harry blinked in surprise. Either Rita was early or he had slept in much later than usual…

Rising from his bed, Harry idly patted himself down in a futile attempt to settle his wrinkled and filthy clothing. Perhaps he should adjust the day's lesson to a cleaning charm? That way at least he would be able to use himself as a demonstration and get back to feeling at least a bit more human.

The instant Harry opened the door between his sleeping area and the classroom area, he found his vision overtaken by Goldar's armor. A heartbeat later, Goldar's arms lashed out, grabbing Harry by his upper arms and lifting him with negligent ease before carrying him over to one of the student desks and shoving him in.

"It occurs to me, Mageling…" Rita drawled from her perch on the "teacher's desk." "That you haven't been teaching me what I want to know."

Harry rallied himself as best he could before responding. "As I've pointed out more than once, Rita, if I wasn't teaching you properly, the collar would activate."

Rita's face stretched into a sickening smile. "Oh, of that I have no doubt, Mageling. You're smarter than I gave you credit for though. You teach each spell properly, but you don't teach me anything especially useful to my goals."

Harry's silence was all but the affirmation that Rita had been fishing for, but he found himself unable to deny her words, knowing what such a lie would do.

Nodding firmly, Rita continued speaking. "Such defiance would normally result in a… painful punishment, but I must admit that I admire your determination and resourcefulness. However, I hope you know that I will no longer give you the room needed for such tricks."

Harry felt his heart sink as Rita's words registered, but before he could think on it, she continued. "The next questions I ask you will be answered immediately and without deep thought or I will let the collar run free. Do you understand?"

Harry paled immediately at her statement. Then he went even paler when his failure to immediately answer sparked a buildup of Power from the subservience collar, a buildup that usually preceded pain for him. Finally, just as the pain sparked on his nerves, Harry managed to gasp out an answer. "Yes!"

Rita's sickening smile returned. "Good. Now, the existence of a 'Defense Against the Dark Arts' class implies the existence of actual 'Dark Arts.' Do you know anything of these Dark Arts?"

Harry once more felt the buildup of Power when he delayed speaking for more than a heartbeat. "Technically, I know of them, but-"

"Yes or no will do, Mageling. Now, answer the question!"

"Yes."

"Can you teach me these 'Dark Arts'?"

"No."

"Why not?"

"Because I wasn't taught to use dark magic, only to recognize and fight against it."

"Surely there are some spells classified as dark that you're aware of and that you would be able to instruct me on…"

As Rita trailed off Harry's mind immediately went to three particular spells that he did indeed have intimate knowledge of. Though he had only ever cast two of the three, he knew that they were exactly the kind of spells that Rita was looking for.

Unfortunately, he must have given some sign of his thought process on his face as Rita's own brightened with a wicked glee. "Ah… So I see you do have something you can teach me, Mageling… Tell me, what spells are you thinking about?"

Harry grit his teeth even as he felt fearful anticipation build within him alongside the Power growing in the collar. He knew that he couldn't tell Rita of the Unforgivables. If she were to learn to use them, and there was no doubt in his mind that she would be able to, she would become several orders of magnitude more dangerous than she already was.

Then the pain hit.

Harry felt himself being held in place in the desk seat by Goldar and dimly recognized the sounds of the sadistic monster's laughter as he screamed out his agony. His body was lashed over and over by waves of pain caused by the magic of the subservience collar, but he still refused to answer Rita's question.

After what seemed like an eternity, Rita did something that made the collar deactivate. Harry spent his first few blissful seconds trying to catch his breath, involuntary tears of relief streaming down his cheeks as he did so.

"You are stronger than I had thought as well, Mageling." Rita spoke evenly, her anger clear in her tone. "But you will tell me what I want to know."

Harry took a few more gasps of air before meeting her eyes. "You can try whatever you want, Rita. Do whatever you want to me, but you'll find yourself sorely disappointed in the end."

Rita met his glare for a moment before looking past him toward the doorway, a smug grin breaking across her face. "I had hoped you would feel that way… Bring her in."

Harry's heart, having been propped up by his own determination not to give in, fell once more as he recognized the voice of the person being brought into the room amid the sounds of a struggle. "Let me go you clay-faced creeps!"

It was Trini.

-MR-

Thanks for reading and don't forget to review,

Tenstar12


	33. Chapter 33

Magi Ranger

By: Tenstar12

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or Power Rangers.

 **Chapter 33, or Harry's Escape**

Harry managed to turn far enough in Goldar's iron grip to catch sight of his girlfriend, her clothing dirty and slightly torn and her face bearing a few bruises showing that she hadn't gone down without a fight, being dragged up to the front of the room by a pair of putty patrollers. "Harry!" she shouted when her view was no longer blocked by Goldar's position behind him. "Harry, are you alright?"

"Trini!" Harry responded reflexively, only for Goldar to knock him on the side of the head, cutting of anything else he might have said as stars danced across his vision accompanied by Trini's pleading voice.

"Now don't pass out on us, Mageling." Rita simpered, stepping closer and grabbing his chin to force him to meet her gaze. "You still have some information for me, don't you?"

"Don't tell her anything, Harry!" Trini shouted again, still struggling with two putties holding her arms. "Whatever she wants, don't tell her!" She was silenced when one putty shifted its hand into a large sphere and slammed it into her stomach, dropping her to the ground and leaving her gasping and coughing.

"I had anticipated that bit of nobility on your part, Power Ranger, but you're only here as incentive."

Harry was confused now. Incentive? Trini was supposed to be incentive to make him talk? What?

"I see you're confused, Mageling." Rita smirked before reaching into her robes and pulling something out. "Perhaps you recognize this then?" It was a metal band, perhaps two inches thick, with a buckle on each end that, when they met, would form a ring. He had never seen the one he wore, but he was more than able to take a guess as to what the object was.

Another subservience collar…

Seeing the recognition in his eyes, Rita moved swiftly over and buckled it around Trini's neck before stepping back just as the girl lashed out in yet another attempt to break free from the putties. "What is this thing, Rita!?"

Rita just cackled before turning back to Harry. "Now, Mageling, you will tell me what I want to know or I will torture your girlfriend here… What magics were you thinking of?"

"Harry! Don't!"

Harry found himself completely unsure of what to do. He couldn't tell Rita of the Unforgivable curses, but he couldn't let Trini get tortured by the collar she now wore either.

Rita didn't give him more than a few seconds before she spoke again. "So, still refusing, eh? Admirable, I suppose, but ultimately futile. Yellow Ranger, Trini is it? Stop breathing."

Trini's face twisted in confusion before her eyes widened a mere fraction of a second before she let out the most heart rending, soul-piercing scream of pain Harry had ever heard. The two putties holding her released their hold, allowing Trini to fall to the ground where she spent the next several seconds writhing in pain.

Harry almost immediately tried to stand from the desk seat, but Goldar's grip firmed up to the point of being painful. As the armored fingers dug into his shoulders and the attached monster laughed all the louder, Harry could only shout out his denial. "No! Stop this!"

"Then tell me what I want to know, Mageling!"

"Stop the collar and I will!"

"Tell me first!"

Harry was panicked now. His entire existence focused on Trini, his teammate, his girlfriend, contorting in pain as the magic of the subservience collar raced through her body. And with an order like Rita gave, for her to stop breathing, the pain would only compound each time she took another breath to scream. It was a situation Harry had experienced before.

Finally, he couldn't watch anymore. "Alright, they're called the Unforgivables, and-"

Harry was cut off by a loud explosion from somewhere else in the palace and was thrown to the floor when the entire room shook violently around him, upending the desk he sat at. From what Harry had been able to gather, they were currently in the heart of the place so the explosion was either close by or quite powerful indeed.

It was then that Harry realized that all noise had stopped, including Trini's screaming. He chanced a glance up, expecting the worst, only to find Trini standing once more, gazing toward the doorway into the classroom with an uncharacteristically intense look on her face. It took a few more seconds before Harry noticed that Rita shared that look.

"Goldar, you and the Twin Man go and see what that blast was."

"Yes, Empress," Goldar responded immediately.

Harry's eyes went wide when Trini reached up and ripped the metal collar off of her neck as if it were nothing before responding. "Were you able to get the information you needed, Empress?"

What?

Harry's mind was still spinning as Rita spoke. "It was enough for a starting point. Perhaps once I have an explanation for the explosion we'll try for more, but this will do for now." Rita crouched down next to Harry and patted his cheek condescendingly. "Thank you for your help, Mageling."

Harry's eyes shot back and forth between Trini and Rita, confused. "But… I… I don't… what?"

Trini's face twisted into an evil looking smirk before she was overtaken by a flash of light, revealing the Twin Man beneath the illusion. Then the monster spoke, still using Trini's voice. "You have been tricked once again by the illusions of the Twin Man, Magi Ranger."

Harry's last vision before he blacked out was of the monster running out of the room, assumedly to catch up with Goldar, while Rita slowly stood and walked out as if on a casual stroll.

-MR-

"-he is, Tommy!"

"Come on, Harry, wake up."

"Wake up, Harry."

Harry found himself drifting on the edge of full consciousness, roused slightly by a slight smacking sensation on his cheek.

"We don't have a lot of time, Kim. There's no telling when they'll figure out what happened."

"I think he's coming around now, Tommy. Come on Harry, we need to get moving."

Harry groaned as the room swam into focus. The first thing he registered was that he was lying on his back in the stone classroom he had spent most of his time in during his captivity. The second thing he noticed was the pink helmet gazing down at him impassively while a white gloved hand tried to lightly slap consciousness into him.

"Harry?" Kimberly asked, urgency in her voice. "Harry, can you hear me?"

Harry let out another soft groan and raised a hand to the side of his head where a throbbing pain reminded him of Goldar's blow when… "Trini! Is Trini alright?"

Kimberly tilted her head slightly before glancing up. Harry followed the tilt of her visor and caught sight of Tommy, also in morph, standing near the doorway to the room. "I'm pretty sure that Trini's fine, Harry." she said slowly. "At least I know she was before we came to rescue you."

"But… she was here…" Harry stammered briefly before his eyes went wide as his memory snapped back into place. "Oh Merlin… What have I done…?"

"Harry?" Kimberly asked, concerned.

Harry let his arm fall back down to his side as he stared blankly up at the ceiling. Sure he hadn't told her anything about the Unforgivables beyond their collective classification, but something about the satisfaction in Rita's voice told him that that was more than enough to spell trouble for the Earth.

"We really don't have time for this now, guys," Tommy interjected. "It won't be long before Rita and her goons figure out what happened."

Kimberly nodded firmly, as the Rangers were wont to do during tense situations (Harry blamed the grid for the otherwise out of character actions from his teammates). "Tommy's right, Harry. Can you stand?"

Harry closed his eyes tightly for a second, doing his best to force his concerns and fears aside, before shrugging. "I don't know… I got clocked upside the head pretty hard before I passed out… however long ago that was… I suppose we'll have to find out though…" with a slight grunt of effort and no small amount of help from Kimberly, Harry heaved himself up into a sitting position. After pausing briefly for his head to stop swimming, Harry clambered to his feet, once more with the Pink Ranger's assistance.

Harry's vision blurred out of focus for several moments once he regained his vertical base. It was only because of Kimberly's firm grip on his left arm that he was even able to remain standing. Finally steadying himself, he turned his head toward Kimberly and spoke. "So how did you guys get here?"

Tommy left his post by the doorway to the classroom and came over to stand next to Kimberly. "We'll have to give you the full explanation later, or rather have Billy or Alpha do it because I certainly didn't understand half of what they said, but we teleported in. We actually landed on the surface of the moon and had to make our way here on foot. Anyway, are you ready to morph?"

Harry blinked at the info dump, limited though it was, before shaking his head slowly. "I can't… Morph that is… heck, I can't even leave this freaking room with this damn collar on…"

Kimberly tilted her head in confusion while Tommy turned to anxiously look towards the doorway again. "What do you mean, Harry?"

Harry sighed. "This collar I have on causes me incredible, crippling pain if I break one of Rita's commands. Of course, two of those commands were to not morph and to not leave this room without her say so. Though even without the collar, Rita still has my Power Coin, so I couldn't morph anyway."

Kimberly and Tommy both flinched, Harry's words apparently poking holes in their rescue plan. "Was that all she ordered?" Kimberly asked hesitantly.

Harry shook his head ruefully. "No, I also can't use wandless magic and can't use my wand on anyone in the palace. Beyond that, she ordered me to teach her my magic. Any time we weren't in 'lessons' she kept my Power Coin herself and only gave it back at the start of each new lesson. I managed to avoid teaching her too much of any real use, but right before you guys showed up…" Harry's eyes reflected his own inner dread as he looked into the visors of his fellow Rangers one after the other. "I messed up guys… big time…"

Neither Kimberly nor Tommy said anything immediately. Harry could guess that they probably wanted to ask for more clarification, but held themselves back in light of the previously stated tight schedule. Finally, Kimberly crouched down a few inches, putting her visor on level with Harry's neck and the subservience collar. "Well then, looks like we'll just have to get this collar off you before we can get out of here, get your coin back, and get back to Earth."

Harry snorted despite himself. "There's a sentence I never thought I'd hear outside of a bad joke."

Tommy chuckled weakly while Kimberly continued to study the collar for several seconds. Finally, she nodded and stood straight again. "Alright, I should be able to get this thing off of you with my blade blaster. The lock doesn't look too sturdy as best I can tell, so it shouldn't be too much trouble."

Harry flinched back almost reflexively as his pink clad teammate drew her blaster and swiftly twisted it into its bladed configuration. Then, her words registered. "Hang on a second! Did you say this thing has a lock on it?"

Kimberly looked at him for a moment before responding. "Yeah… There's a little buckle right under your chin with a keyhole on it. It looks like that's all that's holding it in place. Are you saying you didn't know about that?"

"And more specifically, does it even matter?" Tommy interjected, sounding as if he'd like nothing more than to get moving.

Not that Harry could blame him of course.

Taking a deep breath and running his plan over in his head quickly to make sure he couldn't think of any issues with it, Harry spoke. "Alright, so instead of having you swinging your weapon around my throat, why don't I try to unlock the collar with a spell?"

Kimberly immediately saw an issue with his plan. "But Harry, you said that the collar would react if you used wandless magic."

Harry nodded. "Yes, but I'm betting that if the collar is unlocked that it won't activate or else one of you two will be able to pull it off of me before it hits me too hard. If the spell doesn't work at all, then you can take your shot at cutting it off. I'd just prefer to try other options before running the risk of having my throat slashed… no offense…"

Kimberly glanced down at her blade blaster self-consciously before flinching slightly. "Ah… yeah, I see your point…" She glanced helplessly over at Tommy who shrugged and moved to stand closer again.

"How about this then," Tommy said, pulling his Dragon Dagger from wherever it went when he wasn't wielding it. "You try your magic and Kim stands ready to try and yank it off if necessary. If the collar gets triggered, I'll take the slice."

Harry nodded, feeling his nerves settle a bit at the thought of the more experienced martial artist and weapons user being the one making the cut. "That works for me, let's give it a shot. If the collar does kick in, I'll try to stay as still as I can, but you might have to help hold me in place, Kim. Fair warning."

Kimberly's stance communicated her uncertainty, but she still nodded firmly and holstered her blade blaster as she moved to stand behind him, opposite Tommy.

Seeing that Kimberly was in place and Tommy had his weapon ready to lash out, Harry took a deep breath and reached for his magic. He was embarrassed to admit, even if only to himself, that he had fallen out of practice with wandless spells since he got his Power Coin. Admittedly, he had had a whole new type of magic to learn, not to mention everything else on his plate as of late, but that didn't excuse him falling out of condition for such a useful skill that he had prided himself on in the past.

Mad-eye would have been quite angry with him.

Luckily though, it only took a moment for Harry to get back into the swing of getting in touch with his magic. As he drew it up from his core and into his right hand, he internally decided to add wandless magic exercises to his daily routine, if only to stay in form. He just wondered if he would have enough time in the day for everything he was finding to do…

Harry shook himself lightly and refocused. He needed to get out of Rita's palace first, and that meant getting rid of this collar.

Without giving himself any more time to reconsider, Harry reached up with his magically charged hand and tapped the collar directly below his chin where Kimberly had indicated the lock was and cast his spell. " _Alohomora_."

There was a brief build-up of Power in the collar before, with a soft click, it came loose and fell off of him and to the ground with a clatter.

Well, that was far easier than he had expected it to be…

He was sure that Kimberly and Tommy would have shared his exasperated and relieved expression if he had been able to see their faces, but Tommy put that thought to rest when he sprang back into action. "Alright, so you're good to get out of here now, right? No more surprise magic stuff from Rita?"

Harry shook his head. "No. Other than getting my coin back, which means we'll have to face off against Rita at some point, we should be good to go."

Nodding in response, Tommy moved to stand by the doorway again and peeked out for a moment. Then, he leaned back in and waved to them. "Let's go, the coast is still clear. The sooner we get outta here the better I'll feel."

Harry and Kimberly, not inclined to stick around any longer than they had to either, shared a glance and a nod before following the Green Ranger out of the classroom and into the hallway beyond.

-MR-

As the three Rangers, two morphed and one not, snuck through the halls, each felt their nerves resting on edge. Harry, with the memory of his lessons from Moody at the edge of his thoughts, thought to cast silencing charms on their feet, quieting their footsteps. He had initially considered disillusioning them as well, but thought better of it from a tactical standpoint. While Harry might not be too bothered by not being able to see his teammates if they were all casting spells at their opponents, Tommy and Kimberly were much more likely to get physical with any opposition. It could cause problems if none of them could see each other clearly.

They had left Harry's classroom/prison a few minutes before and, other than a quick pause for Harry to silence their footsteps, they had been moving constantly.

Harry was more than a little concerned with the lack of resistance, but he knew that he couldn't do anything but stay on guard and hope for the best.

Kimberly was apparently having similar concerns, though she decided to voice hers as they crept down the dimly lit hallways of Rita's palace. "I don't like this guys…" she whispered. "We came down this way before and had to hide from putties more than once, but now…"

"Yeah…" Tommy agreed grimly. "I know it's kind of cliché, but it really is too quiet around here…"

Harry only hummed his agreement before casting a detection spell. The spell reported no one else nearby, which only increased his paranoia even further.

Finally, after a few more halls and corners had passed, Harry spoke up. "So, where are we headed exactly?"

Tommy glanced back at Harry over his shoulder before responding. "The plan called for us to blast a hole in the side of Rita's palace with a rather strong explosive Billy cooked up and then teleport up to the balcony to get in. After that, we were planning to head for the hole we made on our way out. The idea was that it wouldn't take them long to decide that we had gotten in another way and try and figure out where, which would leave the actual hole less defended than otherwise, so we would be able to get out easier."

Harry ran that plan through his mind quickly and immediately pinged on an issue. "Even if things were to work out that way, it still doesn't address Rita having my Power Coin."

Tommy nodded as he continued leading the three through the palace. "I know, which is why we're heading right for the balcony. I figure Rita will be there still and, let's be honest, I doubt any of them would expect us charging into the heart of Rita's fortress in an attempt to make our escape. Kimberly and I will have to do our best to hold back Goldar and any putties that may also be there… maybe Scorpina too… but that will leave Rita and getting your Power Coin back up to you, Harry."

While Kimberly was behind him, Harry could still almost feel her initial surprise and unease followed by a grim determination to do what needed to be done. Harry himself was feeling more than a bit uncomfortable with the plan, not in the least because he was once more without his Ranger suit for protection. He hadn't missed his overall vulnerability from before attaining his Power Coin, but with the proper planning and no small amount of luck they might just be able to escape unscathed.

-MR-

After another ten minutes or so of travel through hallways that never seemed to go anywhere, though Tommy assured them that they were moving upward and were growing ever closer to their goal, they finally arrived. According to the Green Ranger, the next hallway led directly to Rita's balcony observatory where she did most of her evil plotting. It was also one of the only places within the palace where the magical protections were weak enough to allow for Alpha to teleport the Rangers out.

The only trick here was that said weakness in the protections were only present at the very edge of the balcony. This meant that Harry would have to watch where he stood until he was able to recover his Power Coin lest Alpha evacuate him without it.

"Alright," Tommy said softly, his entire form tense. "Are you two ready for this?"

"Don't worry about us so much, Tommy." Kimberly said, worry for her boyfriend clear in her speech. "I'm more worried about you! There's no telling what Rita might do if this plan doesn't work out…"

Harry put a hand on her shoulder. "Hey, none of that. It's going to work."

The three Rangers shared a few looks before nodding almost as one. "Alright, let's do this." With a wave of his hand, Tommy led the charge of the three Rangers, he and Kimberly easily outpacing Harry with the enhancements given by their suits. It took only a handful of seconds for the two suited Rangers to cross the threshold into the balcony area…

And come to an immediate stop as if frozen a few feet in.

Harry skidded to a stop several feet from the doorway and quickly stepped into another nearby opening, recognizing the empty lab he had seen Finster in on his last visit to Rita's palace. Thinking quickly, Harry disillusioned himself before peaking around the doorway and back toward his still frozen teammates only to nearly head-butt Baboo as he scuttled through the balcony doorway and turned to peer into the room Harry was in.

Backpedaling quickly, Harry was able to keep from bumping into the monster, though he was sure that he had been detected when the monster stared in his direction for several long moments. When the blue creature continued sweeping his gaze around the room before shrugging and turning to leave again, Harry allowed himself to breathe once more. If it had been anyone but Baboo (or Squatt, Harry admitted) the slight optical distortions of his disillusionment charm would probably have been noticed.

Counting himself lucky this time, Harry moved to the doorway once more in time to see Baboo entering the balcony area again and calling out. "The Mageling doesn't appear to be with them, Empress Rita."

Rita's vicious cackle echoed out of the room moments later as Harry approached the balcony doorway and slipped in, careful to avoid contact with the spell field he could now feel just a few feet away from the doorway. Once he had slid along the wall around the trap spell to the left and past his frozen teammates, he took a moment to look around.

Rita, Goldar, Squatt, Baboo, and four putties stood across the room from him, seemingly unaware of his presence, laughing and jeering at the two caught Rangers. The balcony itself was unchanged from his last visit. Thirty or forty feet of railing and curved walls coming from either end of said railing forming a semi-circular room about twenty to thirty feet deep with a single doorway at the apex of the curve. Rita's telescope was still sitting at the center of the balcony, pointed out toward the star-scape Harry could see beyond.

"So Rangers," Rita said once she had recovered from her cackling fit. "You thought it would be so easy to escape my palace after coming here uninvited? We managed to figure out your pathetic plan within minutes of the explosion you caused. I am so pleased that you came here though. It will be much more satisfying to defeat you in person rather than hear a report from Scorpina of how you fell before a legion of putty patrollers."

"You can't hold us here forever, Rita!" Kimberly shouted angrily, her accompanying grunts indicating she was struggling against the spell holding her in place.

"Yeah!" Tommy continued. "And as soon as we get out of this, we'll find a way to free Harry and we'll all get out of here."

Rita's face twisted into a look of satisfaction. "Ah… So you weren't able to free the Mageling from his prison, were you?"

"As if you didn't know that already," Tommy spat. Kimberly remained silent, even her struggles going quiet now as she, and Harry from his vantage, wondered what Tommy was going on about.

Rita herself looked thoughtful for several moments before walking forward and pacing in front of the two trapped Rangers as she spoke. "Do you know what your friend has been doing in his time here in my palace?"

"He said you were forcing him to teach you his kind of magic." Kimberly responded slowly.

Rita nodded before turning to face the two Rangers. "And doing so required the use of his wand. Did he mention this?"

There was a brief pause before Tommy replied in the affirmative. Meanwhile, Harry worked his way further up the curved wall and into the room, keeping an eye on Rita and her minions, who still hadn't moved from their original places, Goldar looking especially smug as he did so. Making sure to keep away from the railing and thus from Alpha's sensors for now, Harry tried to move around behind Rita so as to better take her off guard.

Rita's next comment made him pause though. "And do you think that a mage as powerful as him would remain in my captivity while his focus was in his possession? Have you not asked yourself why he didn't just morph and escape on his own?"

For the life of him, Harry couldn't figure out what Rita was getting at.

Kimberly nearly shouted her next words, seemingly angry at whatever Rita was implying. "What does that have to do with anything, Rita! I'm sure Harry would have escaped if he could!"

The space witch just ignored her. "I'm sure he might have told you some crazy story about a magical object that prevented his escape… a collar of some kind, perhaps?" Rita paused at this, looking back and forth between the two Rangers. Though Harry couldn't see it at the moment, he felt sure Rita was smirking at them. "I never really thought you would have fallen for so simple a diversion, but the mageling was right, you really are that clueless about magic."

Kimberly seemed at a loss for words at this point, meaning it was Tommy's turn to shout. "What are you talking about!? Harry wouldn't lie to us about something like that! There's no way he would stay here willingly!"

"Why not?" Rita asked, resuming her pacing and proving Harry's suspicion about the smirk on her face when she turned in his direction. "After all, Green Ranger, you spent some time with us willingly yourself, didn't you? In fact, I would wager that you still remember it based on your admirable ability to find your way here from the center of my palace."

Tommy remained silent, though Harry could almost feel the glare he was leveling at Rita from behind his helmet. Finally, he growled out a response. "So you brainwashed him, just like you did me. Is that it?"

Rita let out a brief bark of laughter before answering. "I didn't need to. He was eager to spend time around those like himself. Those who could use magic… He may have taught me some of his spells, but it was a mutual exchange of information. He learned just as much from me as I did from him. He was free to leave at any time, but chose not to. I do believe he was contemplating joining my forces in the last few days to be honest with you."

Rita stepped closer to the too Rangers and patted Tommy condescendingly on his armored cheek. "I'm afraid that your rescue mission was doomed from the start, Rangers."

When Rita started cackling again, Harry felt it click. Rita was trying to make Tommy and Kimberly believe that he had turned on them, on the Earth, in favor of their magic using enemy. She didn't know they had managed to get the collar off and was trying to make it sound like Harry was now working for her to demoralize them. If they really hadn't been able to facilitate his escape from the classroom/prison, it was a ploy that could well have worked. If it had done so, the two might well have lost a good bit of their defiance in light of his supposed betrayal, at least for a while. And even if they escaped, the rest of the team would then have been demoralized as well, leaving an opportunity for Rita to hit them while they were down. Now that he thought about it, Rita might even let one or both of them escape in order to create such an opening for herself.

But in reality, what Rita didn't know may well end up hurting her if Harry got the right opportunity.

"I don't believe you! Harry would never do that to us!" Kimberly shouted out. Harry sincerely hoped the outrage in her voice was false and that she hadn't fallen for Rita's ruse, though the lack of body language from the two due to their magical paralysis made it difficult to tell for sure.

"Oh no?" Rita asked before walking back toward her minions. "Why don't you ask Harry yourself?"

Harry barely caught the flash of light out of the corner of his eye before a figure stepped through the doorway behind the two trapped Rangers. The figure was a very familiar one to the Magi Ranger. In fact, it was a face he saw every time he looked into the mirror.

After spending as much time as he had in Rita's palace, coupled with how he was kidnapped and how he had been tricked earlier that very day, he knew that the Harry Potter lookalike could only be the Twin Man. The thing was, he hadn't told Tommy and Kimberly about the monster yet, so they couldn't really know that.

Things had the potential to get very bad now.

"Ah, Harry. I see you managed to find your way here well enough." Rita simpered as the Twin Man walked around into Tommy and Kimberly's view, prompting a gasp of surprise from each of them.

The monster bowed to Rita before responding. "I did, Empress. I apologize if I'm a bit late, but finding one's way around here does take some getting used to."

Harry had to admit, he was impressed. The Twin Man had his mannerisms down fairly well, from his accent to how he held himself, though the bowing and brownnosing was quite out of character.

"…Harry?" Kimberly asked, uncertainly.

The Twin Man turned to face Kimberly with a sneer on his face. "Kimberly, sorry about all this, but I have a good thing going here, and I didn't want you two to mess it up. I get to learn all kinds of magic here, magic that Zordon could never teach me. If that means that I have to give up a few friendships on Earth, then so be it."

When neither Ranger seemed willing or able to respond, the monster turned back to Rita, who was looking toward him eagerly. When the monster then stepped forward and knelt before the witch, Rita smiled. "You have done well here, Mageling, and it is time your helpfulness was rewarded, as promised."

Harry watched as Rita reached into her robes with her free hand and pulled out his Power coin. He tensed up slightly and reached for his magic again, though didn't draw on it for fear of alerting Rita to his presence too soon.

The monster playing the part of Harry Potter, glanced up slightly to see what she had before immediately dipping his head down again as Rita spoke. "You have proven your loyalty to me this day, so I feel that I can trust you with your Power Coin. I only hope you see clear to swear fealty to me as well and join in my conquest of Earth."

There was only the briefest pause before the Twin Man responded eagerly. "I would be honored to swear myself to you, Empress Rita."

Harry had to repress a snort. The monster was hamming things up now, but the Magi Ranger knew his opportunity was coming as Rita held out his Power Coin flat on her palm toward the copy kneeling before her. "Then take back your Power Coin, and become my Magi Ranger in truth!"

Seeing the monster reaching up to take the coin, Harry closed his eyes tightly, pulled on his magic, and gave it an internal _twang_ , starting up his Battle Rhythm technique and using the initial surge of power to cast a spell from each hand. " _Lumos Solem! Accio Power Coin!_ "

The initial burst of light from his Sunlight Charm shot forth, completely masking the visible aura that sprang from his disillusioned form due to his Battle Rhythm. It also had the wonderful side effect of blinding everyone in the room save the Twin Man who was facing fully away from him and completely unprepared for much of anything but the performance he was putting on, and his teammates (he hoped) who had their visors to help shield their eyes. And so it was that none of the individuals in the room were in position to catch the Power Coin before it flew from Rita's hand and across the room into Harry's.

The wizard wasted no time in shifting the coin into wand form and grasping it tightly in his right hand. While he would have liked to morph in this situation, he knew that morphing took too much time, especially for him, and he didn't have that kind of time in his current situation. Already, Rita and Goldar were staring furiously across the room at him, having shaken off most of the momentary blindness caused by his light spell. Wanded spells in one hand and wandless shields and annoyance spells from the other boosted by Battle Rhythm would have to do for now.

Trying to capitalize on the last bit of surprise caused by his spellwork and sudden appearance, Harry cast a wave banisher with his off hand while casting the best canceling spell he could with his wand, pointed toward his two teammates. The banisher caught Squatt, Baboo, and the putties completely off guard, knocking them backwards into the wall behind them. Goldar braced himself upon seeing the magical wave approaching. Though he only had a moment to do so, he was still able to prevent himself from falling, merely sliding back several feet. The Twin Man was caught in mid-rise, still disguised as Harry as he was turning to face the original, and was thrown into Rita. The Sorceress herself shielded almost instinctively fast against Harry's spell, but was unable to prevent being knocked off her feet by her tumbling monster and ended up beneath the Twin Man on the floor.

The general mess made of Rita and her forces gave Harry's canceling spell enough time to break through Rita's trap, freeing Tommy and Kimberly who quickly dashed over to stand on either side of him. "Glad you're still with us, Harry." Tommy quipped, a touch of humor in his voice as Harry canceled his disillusionment charm as well.

"Yeah," Kimberly agreed with a nod. "I almost bought into Rita's story until she started going on about the collar. Too bad she didn't have all the details, huh?"

Harry just shrugged. "What can you expect from an egomaniac like Rita? She got so into her performance that she over played the part and ruined her entire scheme."

Goldar's roar of rage cut off any further discussion between the Rangers as he brought a hand up to his now glowing eyes and then flung it to his side, releasing a lance of energy toward the Rangers, specifically Harry. The Mage mere flicked his wand and conjured up a block of cement in midair to intercept the attack, followed by a shield to protect his teammates and himself from the resulting shrapnel. Then, in a fluid motion, Harry flicked his wand, floating the cement shards into the air, before transfiguring them into dozens of needles with a wave off his free hand, the sizes of the shards preventing anything more dangerous, and sent them back toward Goldar with another wandless banisher.

Goldar, seeing his attack countered so easily and the follow-up cloud of pointy things, shielded his exposed face with his crossed arms, letting the needles bounce harmlessly off his armor. Once the flurry of sharp _tings_ ceased, he lowered his arms only to come face-to-spell with a bright red stunner courtesy of the Magi Ranger.

As Goldar dropped to the ground, magically unconscious, Rita climbed back to her feet while dozens of putties came rushing in from the adjacent hallway and gathered around her. "I don't know how you got rid of the subservience collar, Mageling, but I promise you that you will live to regret defying me again!"

Harry smirked at Rita before stepping to his left with Kimberly and Tommy, closer to the balcony edge. "That's your problem, Rita, you always make promises that you can't keep."

While Kimberly and Tommy continued leading him towards the balcony edge, Harry kept his wand trained on Rita and the encroaching putty horde, the tip of his wand and his off-hand both glowing with collected magical power.

A few more steps back and Harry felt the stone of the balcony railing behind him and saw Kimberly and Tommy in his peripherals standing against it as well. Rita let out a satisfied chuckle. "You're trapped now, Rangers. Though your rescue attempt went perhaps better than anticipated, it's all over now…"

Tommy shook his head slowly, his own soft chuckle barely audible over the mumbling cacophony of the putties' typical noises. "I seem to remember a similar situation to this once before, Rita… Don't you remember how it ended then?"

Any response Rita would have made was interrupted by Kimberly activating her communicator. "Alpha, three to teleport out of here, now."

"Affirmative, Kimberly. Teleporting now."

Rita's screech of fury accompanied the three streaks of light, Pink, Green, and Purple, as they flew from Rita's palace at high speed back toward the Earth.

-MR-

Just like the last time Harry had returned to the Earth from Rita's Moon Palace, his knees buckled almost as soon as he rematerialized in the Command Center. Unlike the last time, there was nobody there to catch him before he fell. So it was that Harry found himself on the ground, his knees and face hurting from their recent contact with the Command Center floor. Meanwhile, the morphed Tommy and Kimberly merely stumbled slightly, their suits having protected them enough to avoid most of Harry's results.

Upon seeing Harry's plight, the two Rangers were quick to move to his side and help him stand once more, moving with him to the cot Alpha had once more placed in the middle of the circle of computer consoles.

"Welcome back, Harry." Zordon said, his deep voice resonating around the Command Center and causing the last of Harry's tension to leave his body. If Zordon was here, he knew he was safe.

"It's good to be back, Zordon…" Harry said with a sigh of relief. Then, glancing around the Command Center and seeing only Tommy, Kimberly, and Alpha, he voiced a question. "Where's everyone else?"

Kimberly snorted softly as she and Tommy demorphed in a flash of light. "At home in bed I'd imagine. I would say they were asleep, but I sincerely doubt that Trini is. She's been incredibly worried about you since you disappeared."

Harry groaned slightly before closing his eyes. "Here's hoping that being kidnapped against my will can get me a little slack from her. I have no doubt that her worry will shift into irritation as soon as she sees that I'm alright."

Kimberly and Tommy both shared a laugh at Harry's expense while the Pink Ranger leaned into her boyfriend's shoulder. "Don't worry, Harry," she said, reassuringly. "I'll be calling her on my communicator before I hit the sack myself to let her know you're alright. Then she'll have all day at school to get over her irritation before seeing you again."

"To be honest, Harry," Tommy said as Alpha toddled over and began waving a strange device over the Magi Ranger. "If it weren't for the fact that she didn't think she could get out of her house tonight without being noticed, she would have been on the rescue mission too."

Harry quirked an eyebrow. "Yeah, what's with that anyway? Why would everyone else be asleep now? Its morning isn't it?"

Tommy chuckled a bit weakly before responding. "Technically, I suppose…" He glanced at his communicator before continuing. "It's about two in the morning, but that's still morning, strictly speaking."

Harry blinked in surprise before understanding came to him. He had already noted that it was difficult to keep track of night and day cycles from within the moon base. Most of his "mornings" had come whenever Rita was ready to learn more magic, and there was no telling how long each of his "nights" had been. The obvious conclusion was that his sleep cycles had been thrown off during his captivity.

"In any case, Harry," Tommy spoke again, oblivious to the Magi Ranger's musings. "Kim and I need to head home before we're missed. School is gonna be hard enough tomorrow with only a few hours of sleep to run on. Thank goodness it's a Friday, eh Kim?"

Kimberly nodded her agreement before stifling a yawn. "We'll see you after school tomorrow, alright Harry?"

Harry nodded back and waved as the two Rangers teleported out. Turning his head the other way and letting his arm fall weakly back to his side, Harry focused on Zordon as the floating head spoke. "For now, Harry, rest yourself. Your body is weary from the teleportation from Rita's palace combined with your undoubtedly insufficient care while you were her captive. The new day will come soon enough and we will deal with the associated problems then."

Harry nodded, stifling a yawn of his own as Alpha finished with whatever scans his device was taking and rested a comforting hand on Harry's shoulder. "It's good to have you back with us, Harry."

Harry smiled his thanks to the robot before taking Zordon's advice and allowing Morpheus to claim him.

-MR-

Thanks for reading and don't forget to review,

Tenstar12


	34. Chapter 34

Magi Ranger

By: Tenstar12

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or Power Rangers.

 **Chapter 34, or Return of the Twin Man… in 3D!**

Harry woke a few hours after his return to the Command Center with his stomach growling at him. Luckily enough, he had recovered enough to stumble his way into his attached room to reach his food stores and fix himself a bowl of cereal (he had long since upgraded from mere peanut butter sandwiches) and flop down on his own cot in the corner where he drifted back to sleep again.

His next awakening was much less peaceful, brought about as it was by the Command Center's alarms sounding off.

With a groggy sense of urgency, Harry stumbled his way into the Command Center proper, rubbing at his eyes with one hand. "Wha'z goin' on?"

"Ai yai yai yai yai! Harry! You're awake!" Alpha was almost immediately at the Magi Ranger's side, once more waving a strange device at him.

"Harry," Zordon intoned, his voice more solemn than usual. "It seems we have a situation in Angel Grove…" Zordon trailed off, his floating face showing a great deal of distress while Harry did his best to clear the fog of interrupted sleep away from his mind.

"Zordon, I keep telling you that it simply can't be!" Alpha nearly shouted, sounding just as distressed as Zordon did even as he kept up with whatever he was doing with the device still being waved around Harry.

"But if it is, Alpha, we must take precautions… The fate of the world could depend on it."

By this point, Harry was just incredibly confused. "Err… How about we fill in the human in the room, yeah?"

Zordon blinked quickly before nodding. "I apologize, Harry, please observe the Viewing Globe."

Harry, mindful of Alpha still hovering nearby, made his way over to the Viewing Globe with the robot following closely behind, mumbling quietly as he went. When Harry reached the Rangers' typical 'observing' position, directly between Zordon and the Globe and at the far end of the ring of computers from the trapped wizard, the globe lit up from within…

…And started playing a news broadcast…

"And we're coming to you live from our News Copter with the latest on this most distressing of situations." The man's voice coming from the Viewing Globe sounded tense, which did nothing to settle Harry from the already negative atmosphere in the Command Center. The picture shown was somewhat hazy, as was typical of the Viewing Globe, but did appear to be from high above Angel Grove.

"We are trying to get a good view to confirm the unbelievable reports that we've been receiving for the last half hour in this, the latest catastrophic event to befall our city. If these reports turn out to be true…" The man trailed off again as the camera panned to the left, showing a column of smoke billowing up in the distance through the helicopter's front window. The reporter seemed unable to comment further as the machine flew closer and closer to the source of the smoke.

Finally, the helicopter started flying lower, passing between a few buildings and affording a closer view of the street below and the people running frantically in the opposite direction.

As the camera got close enough to see the source of the smoke, a large fire billowing from several cars that had been set ablaze, the reporter spoke again. "This is the location we were told is the epicenter of this tragedy, and the destruction is quite self-explanatory… I don't know- wait… John, swing around left! Left! Mike, turn the camera over there! I don't believe it!" The reporter's voice took on a tone of strained disbelief as the helicopter pivoted around in the intersection…

…and the five core Mighty Morphin Power Rangers came into view as they used their Blade Blasters to set yet another car aflame.

"This truly is a day out of our worst nightmares, my fellow citizens." The reporter was saying, horror in his voice. "I didn't want to believe it, heck I still don't, but the evidence before me doesn't lie. The Mighty Morphin Power Rangers have turned against us and against our fair city."

At that moment, the Red Ranger seemed to take notice of the helicopter flying nearby and pointed it out, prompting the other four to turn and face it, raising their blasters as they did.

"Shit! John! Get us out of here!" The pilot didn't have to be told twice as the camera's view immediately began rising rapidly, barely avoiding the lances of light sent from the Rangers' blasters.

Once they were out of immediate danger, once more well above the rooftops of the city, the reporter spoke again. "I have to be honest here folks, I don't really know what to say to this. The Power Rangers have protected us for so long, why would they turn on Angel Grove now? And what of the Green and Magi Rangers? I didn't see them there with the others… Could they have turned on us too, or is there still hope?" The man fell silent as Harry watched the Viewing Globe, surprise written all over his face even as the Globe went dark.

After several more seconds, Harry turned to face Zordon again. "I… I don't believe it…"

Zordon merely nodded. "I know what you mean, Harry. Alpha intercepted the first reports from the city, but we were unable to get any further confirmation, even with the Viewing Globe, until now. But now we must take the appropriate steps. Until we learn otherwise, we must assume that the Power Rangers have turned on the side of good. Alpha, what is your assessment of Harry's condition?"

Alpha, strangely subdued, tilted his device up toward the front of his saucer shaped head for a moment before commenting. "Other than a bit of physical fatigue from his captivity, Harry is operating at sufficient levels."

"Good," Zordon replied, closing his eyes briefly before nodding firmly. "Then Harry, there is only one thing that can be done. We-"

Zordon was interrupted by a series of loud beeps from one bank of computers that Alpha quickly scurried over to, setting his scanning device atop the computer before he began manipulating the controls. After a few moments and multiple button presses, Alpha suddenly let out a cry of happiness. "HA! I knew it Zordon! I knew that the Power Rangers wouldn't turn on us like that!"

Zordon just looked surprised and Harry felt a slight bit of hope fight its way through the disbelief. "What do you mean, Alpha?"

"The computer has located the Power Rangers' communicators, and they aren't in the middle of the city. They're all still at school!"

Zordon now looked perplexed. "That doesn't even make any sense, Alpha… The Rangers should have been out of school an hour ago… why would they still be there?"

The three, wizard, mentor, and robot, stood (floated) silently for a minute, their minds racing to try and figure out why the Rangers were still at school, especially after school hours and with the city being attacked. At the very least, one would think that Jason or Tommy would have been rushing to face this new threat as soon as they found out, and with the news broadcast going on, there was little chance they hadn't heard somehow.

"Do you think they might be in trouble?" Harry asked slowly. "I mean, maybe something that kept them from contacting you already… Maybe Rita got to them in school before they could morph or something…"

Zordon hummed in thought before focusing his attention on Harry. "You make a good point, Harry. I want you to go to Angel Grove High and attempt to discover what has happened to the Rangers. We shall make further plans to deal with the imposters attacking the city once you have done so."

Harry nodded, though internally he let out a sigh of frustration. A guy just couldn't catch a break around this town, could he?

-MR-

A beam of purple light temporarily lit up a very familiar alleyway near Angel Grove High. When the light faded, revealing Harry Potter, the Magi Ranger took a few moments to look around, reminiscing on his brief mission into the disappearance of one Tommy Oliver that had brought him to this same place. It seemed like it was so long ago, but in reality it had only been a few short months.

Bringing himself back onto point, Harry tapped his wand on top of his head and cast a disillusionment charm. Once the oh so familiar feeling of egg running down his body had faded and he was sure the spell was in place, he made his way out of the alley and turned toward the front doors of the school.

The first thing he noticed was that the streets were mostly deserted, only a few cars here and there compared to what should have been much heavier traffic on a normal day. Of course, it was quite likely that Emergency Services had ordered people to stay in their homes while the "Power Rangers" were causing havoc in the streets. Harry repressed a growl, he had a theory as to what was going on. He just needed to meet with the other Rangers to prove it.

Upon reaching the glass doors into the building, Harry found them to be locked. Shrugging to himself, Harry peered through the glass to see if there was anyone around before silently apparating himself past the doors and into the school. Once inside he tried to figure out how exactly he was going to find the Rangers.

The obvious solution was the Point Me spell, but seeing as he was currently disillusioned, he would have to drop the spell in order to effectively see the results. Not necessarily something he wanted to do at the moment. Another option would be to just wander around and hope he caught sight of them, again not ideal since it would take so long.

While he was pondering his options, his Potter luck kicked in again as he heard a voice echoing down the main hallway from where he stood mere moments before two figures, a man and a woman, turned a corner and started towards him. "I can't believe it Ms. Applebee, I just can't believe that those kids would do such a thing, or honestly anything that would land them in detention."

"I know what you mean, but several other students reported seeing them in action. They pried open the water fountain and sabotaged it. I just can't believe that they tried to help up Mr. Caplan when he slipped in the mess afterwards."

"Well, maybe they just felt bad. Perhaps someone else pushed them into trying that prank to get even and Mr. Caplan fell into it by mistake. I know they've all been rather upset since that Potter fellow went missing."

"Oh yes, the poor dears… Especially Trini. She hasn't looked so out of sorts as long as I've known her… Do you really think that they could all just be acting out because of that?"

"Well, I'm no Psychology teacher, but…"

Harry just stared ahead blankly as the two, who he assumed were teachers, entered a doorway a few feet away from him labeled "office," preventing him from hearing any more of the conversation when the door closed behind them. Mentally, he added another reason for him to not drop the disillusionment charm: apparently he was missing and there was no telling what kind of trouble it would cause if he suddenly turned up and was recognized in the middle of the High School building.

Still, the overheard conversation did give him some useful information. With their mentioning Trini, Harry could assume that the two had been talking about the other Rangers and the guy had mentioned that they were in detention…

Seriously?

That's why the Rangers hadn't been able to battle against the phonies attacking the city? That's why they hadn't been able to contact Zordon? No attack from Rita, they were just all in detention? Seriously!?

Harry shook his head slowly. There had better be an amazing explanation for this whole thing…

-MR-

Harry ended up tracking down the Power Rangers by the simple process of checking the signs hanging above the doorways. Most of them merely indicated which teacher taught in the indicated classroom, but it didn't take him too long to find the one labeled "Detention Hall."

There was a narrow, vertical window in the door and Harry was able to see enough of the room to learn a few things. First, the other six Rangers were indeed in there. Second, the only other occupants in the room were Bulk, Skull, and someone who must be the teacher supervising their detention.

Nodding to himself, Harry glanced down the hallway in each direction before twisting on the spot, once more silently apparating the few feet necessary to bring him inside the classroom. Upon appearing, Harry immediately waved his wand in a wide sweep, mentally excluding his fellow Rangers from the spell, and cast. " _Somnus_."

The effects of the sleeping spell took hold almost right away and the two bullies and supervising teacher dropped their heads to their respective desks, snoring loudly as they fell into an enchanted slumber.

Jason practically leapt up from his seat and took a fighting stance with the other Rangers following suit soon after. "What's going on here!?" he demanded, glancing around furiously.

Harry just rolled his eyes. "Calm down, guys. It's just me."

"Harry?!" Trini squeaked, her eyes going wide as they all relaxed again, some quicker than others. "Where are you?"

Harry couldn't help but let a smile stretch across his face as his eyes fell on his girlfriend, the last bit of subconscious worry brought on by Rita's trick finally subsiding. "I'm over by the door, Trini, I'm just disillusioned."

"You're just what now?" Zack asked as he slid back into his desk, relief visible on his face as well.

"Logic would suggest that it is a spell that facilitates invisibility of some kind." Billy inferred, settling down before the multiple open books he had on his desk. Apparently, the genius wasn't letting detention get in the way of his studies.

"Right in one, Billy." Harry responded before shaking himself and setting his mind back on track even as the rest of his teammates sat again. "But that's not important right now. What the hell happened to you guys? Why are you here in detention when there's a bunch of fake Power Rangers attacking the city and ruining your image with the public?"

"Say what?" Zack nearly shouted, half jumping out of his seat again before being shushed by his teammates and drawing back into himself.

Harry shrugged before breaking into a brief explanation. "I woke up a while ago because of the Command Center alarms. The Viewing Globe showed the Power Rangers attacking the city, and Alpha determined that you guys were still here, so Zordon sent me to find out what was going on."

Jason let out an audible growl before speaking. "Someone set us up. All we know is that we came around a corner in the hallway and saw a bunch of student laughing while Mr. Caplan flailed around in a huge puddle of soap suds. We tried to help him up and he gave us all detention for causing the mess in the first place."

"Yeah, we were totally framed." Kimberly pouted, still looking a bit sleepy to Harry's eyes. Not surprising since she hadn't been able to sleep for more than ten hours like he had.

"And I really hope this doesn't end up on our permanent records…" Trini said next, her anxiety over her schooling warring with her relief at the confirmation of Harry's safety.

Jason continued, undeterred by the girls' interruptions. "And when we got here, Caplan confiscated our communicators when they wouldn't stop going off. He said we'd get them back when detention was over, so we couldn't get in touch with Zordon even when we knew something had to be wrong."

Harry just rolled his eyes. "Alright, well that certainly supports my theory as to what's going on. Rita has a monster called the Twin Man. That's how she was able to capture me, the monster disguised itself and caught me off guard. It did the same thing up in Rita's palace during Tommy and Kimberly's rescue mission. I'm willing to bet that that monster is responsible for the imposter Rangers out there right now."

Tommy nodded thoughtfully. "Yeah, that would certainly explain that extra copy of you that showed up when Kim and I were trapped…"

"My thoughts exactly." Harry agreed, disregarding the others' looks of confusion for the moment. "So let's get the heck out of here and take these fakes down, yeah?"

Before any of the Rangers could respond, Harry's communicator went off. Confused, Harry raised his communicator and responded. "I read you Zordon, what's up?"

"Harry, Alpha and I have been tracking your progress on the Viewing Globe. I'm afraid that the others will be unable to help in the battle right away."

"Say what now?" Harry asked, more than a bit surprised at Zordon's pronouncement, though no more than the other Rangers who had also let out their own sounds of disbelief.

Zordon continued unabated. "If the other Rangers were to come with you to battle against the Twin Man, then it is more than likely that their absence would be discovered. Even if you kept your sleeping spell on the others in the room, it is highly probable that someone else would stumble upon the room and wake them. If that happens, the Rangers would undoubtedly be in even greater trouble, not only at school, but with their parents as well. Such a situation would only be detrimental in the fight against Rita's evil forces."

Harry blinked slowly. "So you're telling me that I'm gonna have to fight by myself for now so that the other Rangers don't get into trouble with their parents… What about the Grid's protections? Wouldn't they help smooth over that sort of thing?"

"Unfortunately not, Harry. The protection provided by the Morphing Grid merely prevents people from connecting the civilian identities of those who use the Grid's Power with their morphed alter egos. Allowing the Rangers to battle in spite of limitations put on their civilian identities is not within the Grid's purview. In any case, despite the apparent odds, I am confident that you will be able to prevail in this battle. While its illusion powers are formidable on their own, the Twin Man's combat capabilities are somewhat less than most of Rita's monsters. In addition, according to our sensors, the other false Power Rangers with the Twin Man are nothing more than putty patrollers beneath the illusions. You should be able to deal with such threats relatively easily, even on your own."

Harry found himself unable to respond at first. He was still processing the fact that he was going to have to fight this next battle alone, or more specifically the reason why he would have to fight alone.

Seriously, you couldn't make up stuff this ridiculous…

Finally, Harry took a deep breath before letting it out slowly. He could do this. Like Zordon said, it was just a weaker-than-average monster and a bunch of costumed putties. No big deal, right.

"One final thing, Harry."

Crap.

"I'm afraid that, should Rita grow the Twin Man, you will be without a Zord for the time being."

Harry instantly felt his worry increase and nearly snapped at his teacher. "What happened to Hedwig!?"

"She is alright, Harry. When you disappeared, Hedwig was rather inconsolable. It certainly didn't help that none of us could communicate with her as easily as you can. When we confirmed that you were being held in Rita's Palace three days ago, Hedwig attempted to rescue you herself. The problem was, without you to help facilitate her transformation into her Zord Form, she quickly exhausted her own energy attempting the same and is now recharging and recovering in the Zord hangar with the other Zords."

Harry let his tension drain again, though certainly slower as he was still quite worried for his familiar. At least this explained why he hadn't received the expected telling off from Hedwig the moment he awoke in the Command Center. He had to admit, Hedwig doing something like that wasn't terribly unexpected now that he really thought about it. She was incredibly protective of him, especially since her reincarnation as his Silver Owl Zord.

"Alright, Zordon. I guess I'll just have to hope for the best and try to take these guys down as fast as I can." Deactivating his communicator, Harry turned his attention to the other Rangers who were all looking at him with varying degrees of worry. "And as for you guys, as soon as you get out of here, I would really appreciate it if you would hightail it to the battlefield, alright?"

Six nodding heads were his response before Jason spoke. "We'll be there as soon as we can, Harry. Just try and stay out of trouble until then."

"Well, I'll be off then. I'll cancel the sleeping spell before I leave, so try not to act out of the ordinary if you can." Harry said, raising his wand to put actions to words when he was interrupted once more.

"Please, Harry… be careful."

Harry glanced up at Trini when she spoke, her concern clear on her face though her gaze wasn't focused on him due to his near invisibility. Making up his mind, Harry walked over to where she sat and put a hand on her shoulder that she immediately covered with one of her own, a weak smile on her face. "Hey, no worries. Zordon is right, I can take care of these guys, and I have a score to settle with the Twin Man. This'll all be over before you know it and we'll be laughing about how you guys got stuck in detention while enjoying smoothies at the Youth Center."

Trini's smile grew slightly before nodding. "I really wish I could see you right now…"

Harry gave his own, unseen, smile back. "Can't take the risk of someone else seeing me here. Apparently, I'm missing."

"Oh yeah…" Zack chuckled awkwardly. "I guess we'll have to figure out how you're going to be found again, huh?"

Harry snorted briefly before giving Trini's shoulder a final squeeze and pulling away. "Yes, Zack, we will, but that's for later." Harry quickly walked back to the corner of the room by the door before raising his wand again. "Catch you guys later…" And he waved his wand, canceling the sleeping spell on the Non-Ranger occupants of the room before vanishing with a soft pop of apparition.

-MR-

Reappearing atop the school building, Harry took a moment to look out over what he could see of Angel Grove. While the school building wasn't the tallest building in Angel Grove, and honestly not even in the area, he could still easily see the trail of smoke billowing up into the sky where the Twin Man and his False Rangers were attacking the city.

"It's time for a bit of payback, Twin Man." Harry growled, clenching his fist tight. "You've managed to catch me off guard and trick me twice now, but I'm ready for you this time, and I won't be holding back… It's Morphin' Time."

-MR-

In a column of purple light, the Magi Ranger teleported to the top of a skyscraper a mere two blocks from the leading edge of the Faux Rangers' trail of destruction. Almost immediately, he noticed the rhythmic thumping sounds of a helicopter relatively close.

Glancing around, Harry spotted a white helicopter with a stylized "Channel 4 News" written on it in red and windows all down the sides. Thinking quickly, he decided to try and fix the Power Rangers' PR problem before getting on with the main event. After all, the battle had waited this long, and taking care of things before he was caught on the news apparently curb stomping his teammates would prevent all kinds of confusion and grief.

Focusing both his magic and a hint of Grid Power, Harry tapped the Magi Staff on the concrete rooftop below him and transfigured a portion of the building directly below him into a thin metal slab that then lifted up into the air with him still standing atop it. Secured by a sticking charm and a mild shield charm to protect from the winds and downdraft from the helicopter itself, Harry guided his temporary transportation toward the mostly stationary aircraft and around to float in front of it.

The face of the pilot was almost laughable when he first caught sight of the floating Power Ranger, though Harry found he couldn't really blame the man. If he had been in his place and suspected that the Power Rangers had turned on them all and then found one of the missing ones staring straight at him he would have probably panicked too.

Deciding to cut to the chase as quickly as possible, Harry waved his free hand, conjuring up a simple sign that read "Permission to come aboard?"

This seemed to take the pilot off guard for a moment before he turned his head slightly and said something, presumably to the individuals in the back of the helicopter. Mere moments later, another man stuck his head up into the cockpit area and caught sight of the floating Power Ranger. The two men exchanged words briefly, the pilot seeming to grow slightly more panicked for a moment before calming again and turning to face Harry again, giving him a thumbs up and a nod.

Nodding in return, Harry watched as the Helicopter turned sideways and a door opened in the side facing him with the man who had come up to the cockpit standing there, a harness helping keep him in the aircraft as he waved the Magi Ranger closer. Harry did indeed bring his floating platform closer to the Helicopter until the downdraft from the propeller blades threatened to overcome even his stabilization charms. At that point, he banished the platform and apparated the short distance left, appearing just behind the man still standing in the open door.

The man appeared confused for a moment, but when he turned to find the Magi Ranger behind him he nearly jumped out of the helicopter in shock. In the cabin of the aircraft itself, a relatively small space all considered, there was only one other person, this one with a camera resting on his shoulder and pointing right towards the newly arrived Ranger.

Once he had recovered from his shock, the man at the door quickly pulled the doorway closed, cutting off a good deal of the sound coming into the cabin, and opened his mouth to say something. The problem was, Harry still couldn't hear any of it. The problem persisted when the man, Harry assumed a reporter seeing as he had already identified the cameraman and pilot, attempted to hand Harry an extra headset, which wouldn't really work as intended through his helmet.

Finally, Harry merely tapped his staff onto the floor of the cabin, casting a localized silencing charm to help cut down on ambient noise while, hopefully, not frying the aircraft's systems. Luckily enough, the magical field was weak enough that he was able to make out the reporter's next words. "-gotta figure out a way to talk with him, Mike. We've got the freaking Magi Ranger here with us! Maybe he can explain what's going on with the others."

"That is, in fact, exactly why I'm here, sir." Harry interjected, catching the man off guard as he realized he both heard the Ranger's words and that it was generally quieter in the helicopter than normal.

"How did…" the reporter sputtered for a moment as he tried to come up with an explanation.

Harry just smirked under his helmet. "Magic."

The reporter blinked a few times before nodding. "Works for me I suppose." The man seemed to draw himself up before gesturing to his cameraman who gave him an "OK" signal followed by counting down from 3 with his fingers. Then the reporter began speaking again. "I have a breaking news update on the Power Ranger situation. Here with me in the News Copter is, believe it or not, the Magi Ranger himself." At this, the cameraman panned the device over to bring Harry into the frame, or so he assumed. It seemed that Harry's intention to straighten things out had turned into an impromptu interview.

"Please, Magi Ranger, can you tell us what is going on with the other Rangers? Was there a fight between you all that led to the destruction they've caused today? And what about the Green Ranger?"

Harry took a moment to try and force himself to relax before speaking. "Alright, first off, the Rangers down there destroying the city aren't the real Rangers. The real ones, including the Green Ranger, have been… delayed by the same monster of Rita's that is now leading the group of imposters right now. I just wanted to get the word out so that the people of Angel Grove would know that their heroes have not turned on them, it's just another of Rita's plots."

The reporter's face lit up in relief as Harry spoke. "So can we assume that you are planning on engaging these imposter Rangers now?"

Harry nodded firmly. "I am. As I said, I just wanted to clear the air, so to speak, beforehand."

The reporter seemed to hesitate a moment before asking another question. "I don't suppose I could ask you about yourself while you're here, could I? Or perhaps a bit about the other Rangers? Like how you all got involved in this battle in the first place? Where did Rita come from and why is she attacking Angel Grove?"

Harry shook his head slowly, though his mind was racing. "As much as I would like to answer your questions, I think we can both agree that there are much more pressing problems at hand than satisfying your curiosity, despite the fact that most people in the city probably share the same curiosity."

The man flinched slightly before shaking his head. "No, no you're right. Thank you Magi Ranger, for the information. I suppose we'd best let you get on with it then."

Harry nodded again before tapping his staff once more to remove the silencing charm and twisting in place, apparating back to the rooftop he had been on before with a pop.

Reorienting himself, Harry saw the helicopter bank slightly, flying closer to his new position. If he wasn't mistaken, the cameraman was pointing his camera out one of the side windows at him while the reporter looked on, most likely speaking the entire time.

Harry just shrugged internally, putting the news crew out of his thoughts before apparating once more to another rooftop, this one bordering the street where the Twin Man's Rangers were.

Moving to the edge of the building, Harry looked down and was barely able to make out the dots of color walking down the middle of the street ten stories below him. Of course, the random lances of destructive energy coming from their blade blasters certainly helped point them out.

Harry narrowed his eyes behind his visor. They may just be putties and a single monster, but that didn't mean he could afford to play around. He just had to keep one thing in mind: Rita was most likely watching him in the hopes of picking up more incantations, so silent casting was the order of the day.

Hearing the helicopter once more drawing closer to him, Harry backed up several steps from the edge before sprinting forward and leaping out into open air. He almost seemed to float there for a moment before gravity took hold of him and he began falling, carefully angling himself toward the clustered villains below. When he had traveled about half of the distance, Harry jabbed the Magi Staff forward, letting fly with several blasting charms that rained down upon the unsuspecting monsters before a massive force wave both sent them flying and cancelled enough of Harry's momentum to allow him to flip into a crouched landing safely.

Harry stood slowly, looking around himself to take in the battlefield. They were standing on a typical city street in Angel Grove. In this case, Harry found himself fairly close to the center of a double lane, two-way street, giving him fifteen to twenty feet on either side with another ten or so feet of sidewalk before reaching the buildings. Along either side of the road, trees sprouted from strategically spaced planters in the pavement that stood between ten and fifteen feet tall, bringing a bit of life to the otherwise boring cityscape. Mostly by chance, Harry was facing the slowly recovering Faux Red Ranger, who he suspected to be the Twin Man in disguise, with the other four spread out around him, the Yellow and Black behind him and Pink and Blue to his left and right respectively.

Faux Red almost immediately started in on the act upon climbing to his feet, speaking with Jason's voice. "What are you doing here, Harry? We already decided we were taking over the city and that's final!"

Harry just shook his head. "It's no use trying anymore, Twin Man. I've already spread the word that you guys aren't the real Rangers. Now, I'm here to finish things between us."

"What are you talking about?" Faux Red continued while the other four glanced around uneasily. If one didn't know better, one might actually buy into their act. It must have been the Twin Man's magic boosting the acting ability of the putties because there's no way that they were usually this capable. "Of course we're the real Power Rangers. Who else would we be?

Seeing the monster was determined to stick to its role, Harry began drawing up Power as he spoke. "You know exactly what I'm talking about, Twin Man. I'm not going to let you drag the reputation of my friends through the mud for whatever plan Rita has cooked up this time. Especially not with our personal history. I'm gonna take you down!"

Harry lifted the Magi Staff up a few inches before bringing it down with a slight grunt, releasing a wave of kinetic magic that washed over his multicolored opponents before they could react. Almost immediately, their feet lifted off the blacktop, leaving them stuck hovering in midair. "Unfortunately for you all…" Harry drawled, smirking as he watched the monster and putties in disguise flail around helplessly. "I am in no mood to play around today!"

Focusing his will upon the Power within him, Harry molded it into the form of a hand and grasped the Faux Yellow Ranger with it before creating another and grabbing the Black. With a mental command, his two invisible "hands" of kinetic force swung forward on either side of him, catching the Blue and Pink Faux Rangers as they went before slamming into the Twin Man from either side.

The five imposters ended up in a pile of limbs on the ground, each of them struggling to stand again while Harry gathered his magic and jabbed his staff forward. His silent _Bombarda Maxima_ lanced out, flashing over the distance between him and his target in mere moments before engulfing them in an explosion that rattled the windows around them.

Harry waited.

After a few moments, the smoke began to clear, slowly revealing a crater in the blacktop before Harry's attention was caught by rapid movement from his right. Acting quickly, Harry spun, casting a wandless shield with his off hand while the Magi Staff lit up with Power once more.

Only to stop himself just before releasing the built up Power into the chest of the Green Ranger.

"Woah," he said, raising his arms in a gesture of surrender. "Uh… I come in peace?"

Harry let out a sigh as he relaxed slightly and dropped his shield before glancing back toward the crater and seeing several grey figures lying there motionless. "Sorry about that Tommy, I suppose I'm a bit on edge."

Tommy merely chuckled uneasily before waving his arm in the general direction of the crater in the street. "Yeah, I can see that. It look like you got them all thought."

"So it does…" Harry hummed thoughtfully. "Where are the others?"

"Oh, don't worry, they decided to check around for more putties and sent me on ahead to see if you needed any help."

Harry nodded before releasing a deep sigh. "Well, in that case…" Harry gestured with his staff toward the Green Ranger and released a burst of magic, causing the pavement below him to leap up, encasing his arms from his elbow down and his legs up to his knees in blacktop, effectively holding him in place. "You won't mind if I check on your story."

"What the hell, Harry?" Tommy said, struggling against his stone-like bindings.

"This'll only take a second." Harry replied calmly before raising up his left wrist to his mouth. "Alpha, this is Harry, come in."

"I read you Harry, and I think I know what you want to ask. The Green Ranger you caught can't possibly be our Green Ranger because he and the others are still at Angel Grove High."

Harry smirked under his helmet before leveling a hidden glare at the suddenly motionless Faux Ranger. "Thanks Alpha, you read my mind."

Harry took one last glance into the still smoking crater and counted five unmoving putty patrollers where there had previously been five fake Power Rangers. Nodding in satisfaction, he turned to fully face the trapped the trapped Green Ranger. "You know, I have to say that it was rather tricky of you to wait in the wings like you did. I honestly thought you would have taken the form of the Red Ranger. Oh well, my bad. I guess it's just good that it worked out in the end, eh Twin Man?"

"What are you talking about!?"

Harry just scoffed. "Even now you're sticking with your little ploy, hoping that I'll buy into it. Well, I know one way to know for sure." Reaching within himself once more, Harry used his own magic to guide the Power into a canceling spell, casting it silently at the trapped Ranger.

The Green Ranger's form seemed to flicker for a moment as the Twin Man's illusion fought against the Grid powered cancellation spell. Finally, after a few more moments, the Faux Ranger was engulfed in a flash of light that quickly faded to reveal the shiny metallic form of the Twin Man.

"Tell me truly," the monster growled, renewing its struggles against the blacktop restraints with equally ineffective results. "How did you know it was me?"

Harry rolled his eyes as he spun the Magi Staff around himself, gathering Power into it once more, and took several steps back. "Do you really think that after falling for your tricks and getting captured, falling for it again just before my escape started, and then seeing you in action one final time just before we all left that I would fall for anything as outlandish and ridiculous as the other Power Rangers attacking the city without questioning it? How stupid do you think I am?"

"Stupid enough to get caught in the first place!" The monster shot back, grunting every so often as it pulled at its trapped limbs. "By the way, how did it feel to destroy your girlfriend's lookalike? Should she be warned that you're the violent type?"

Harry growled under his breath before silencing the monster and smiling slightly as it seemed to panic all over again. "Is it really smart to keep on egging on someone who is already about to destroy you because they're ticked off at you?" When the monster failed to respond, Harry just shrugged and released the built up Power within his staff with a thrust and a kiai, launching the purple orb of the incomplete form of his finisher at the trapped monster.

He really should have expected what happened next.

The monster all but absorbed the blast, the reflective surfaces that made up most of its body glowing with a purple tint as it began laughing manically. "Thanks for the power boost, Power Brat!" With another grunt of effort, the Twin Man broke its limbs free from their restraints (and apparently the silencing charm) and flung its arms out wide to either side. "Now that I'm done with it, why don't you take it back! HA!"

Arcs of purple lightning traveled from all over the monster's body toward the single mirror-like panel in its chest. As the arcs moved, the purple glow faded from its extremities and concentrated in the mirror before lancing out toward Harry in a destructive energy blast fueled by Harry's own absorbed attack.

Harry barely managed to snap a shield into place before the blast hit it. He knew that his attack was designed to destroy monsters, so he really didn't want to get hit with his own reflected Power.

After a few moments, the purple color faded from the attack into white and Harry once more heard the laughter of the twin man while his shield took the punishment. "Just give in now, Magi Ranger, by absorbing sunlight, I can keep this beam up all day! You cannot hope to defeat the Twin Man!"

Harry rolled his eyes, both at the monster revealing how he was keeping the attack up and at Zordon's earlier insistence that the Twin Man was weaker than most of Rita's monsters.

The light from the monster's attack was blindingly bright, which made sense if it was, in fact, fueled by sunlight, so Harry was forced to keep his gaze downward lest he get blinded. It was not a handicap he wanted to get in the middle of a fight. All the same, that didn't mean he couldn't fight back, he just had to be a bit more circumspect about it.

With his staff casting and reinforcing the shield protecting him from the Twin Man's attack, Harry was forced to use his off hand to wandlessly cast a transfiguration spell at one of the trees lining the road. The spell took longer to take effect without the benefit of a focus, but the monster was too busy with his mocking laughter to notice the wooden lion with a mane of leaves until it roared and tackled the Twin Man to the ground.

No longer pinned in place by the beam, Harry cast another pair of transfiguration spells with the Magi Staff at another pair of trees and soon the one lion attempting to maul the monster became three.

Harry began building Power again. If the Twin Man could absorb and redirect energy, which he felt was safe to assume since it took in his magical attack and admitted to absorbing sunlight, then he would have to hit it with something decidedly solid if he wanted to win.

By the time the Twin Man managed to rip one wooden cat's head off, the top of the Magi Staff was glowing. When the other two were caught in a single blast of the monster's solar powered laser attack, the Twin Man turned to see Harry's entire form bathed in a purple aura of Power.

The monster merely laughed. "Go ahead and fire another attack at me, Magi Ranger. I'll just absorb it again and turn it back on you. Once you're defeated, I can resume the destruction of Angel Grove as my empress commands! All will bow before Rita or die!"

Harry just grunted. "Don't count your diriclaws before they hatch…" And Harry released his gathered Grid Power and Magic in a single, massive conjuration. In the blink of an eye, he created a solid metal cube, twenty feet on a side, ten feet over the Twin Man's head and let it fall.

The monster never stood a chance, and the weight atop it even managed to muffle the inevitable explosion signifying the Twin Man's destruction.

-MR-

As soon as he was sure the Twin Man had been destroyed, Harry set about vanishing the cube and the remains of his opponents. Once that was done, he did what he could to fix the damage done to the street by his spellwork. The metal cube in particular had sank several feet into the road, not to mention the damage done by the contained explosion, but it was nothing that a gratuitous application of magic couldn't fix.

He was just about to start his way back up the street, following the previous path of destruction caused by the Faux Rangers to fix what he could when six streaks of light touched down in front of him, quickly fading away to reveal another set of Power Rangers.

Deciding to play it safe, Harry activated his communicator. "Alpha?"

"Yes, Harry," the robot responded immediately. "Those are the real Rangers this time. No need to crush them under anything… Ai yai yai…"

Harry chuckled uneasily as his teammates ran up to him, looking around wearily for anyone to fight. "Aw man," Zack whined when it became apparent that no such opponents were around. "Looks like we missed the whole thing!"

Harry shrugged even as he ran his eyes over the damage before him. "Well, better late than never, right?"

"I suppose…" Zack mumbled, watching as Harry waved his staff to extinguish a burning tree before continuing on past the other Rangers. "Uh… where are you going?"

When the other Rangers expressed similar thoughts, Harry turned to face them again. "I figured it would be fairly obvious. I'm gonna do what I can to repair some of the damage done by the fake Rangers before I head back to the Command Center. Unless there's something pressing that demands we get there right away that I don't know about that is. You're all welcome to join me."

When nobody immediately responded, Harry gave another shrug and turned to keep walking down the street, waving his staff every so often when he saw something that he could fix. Most of it was the occasional burning car or tree, and sometimes a broken window or two. Most of the cars had been left alone after the initial intersection, which was good since there was fairly little he could do for the machines beyond extinguishing them.

He didn't make it more than twenty feet though before he found Trini walking on his right. "I'm not letting you out of my sight for a while. At least not until we get back to the Command Center anyway."

Harry shot her an unseen smile. "Happy to have you, and at least you can see me this time, yeah?"

She gave a small snort of laughter even as she nodded. Mere moments later, the other Rangers came up behind him as well.

"I don't know how much we'll be able to do to help out, but we're here too." Tommy said from his left side, clapping a hand onto Harry's shoulder as he did.

"Yeah," Jason was quick to agree, surprising Harry a tiny bit if he were honest. "Our powers are more for fighting and destroying monsters, but if we can help out, we will." He paused for a moment before continuing in a slightly uneasy voice. "Besides, it would probably do our reputation some good for the people of Angel Grove to see us doing something to help this damage after those fakes thrashed our image. We heard what you did with the news crew in the helicopter, Harry, but I think every little bit will help at this point."

Harry just nodded as he continued walking. While the other Rangers were at his side, there really was relatively little for them to do other than righting a few trash cans and, in one case, rescuing a cat from a (luckily non-burning) tree. It took the team a bit over thirty minutes to backtrack along the path of destruction until they reached the intersection where it began and where several fire trucks were already mostly done with the burning cars Harry had seen earlier.

With the job appearing to be done and with the cheers and adulation of the adoring citizens of Angel Grove (many of whom insisted that they just KNEW that those other guys weren't the real Power Rangers) ringing in their ears, the Rangers teleported back to the Command Center.

-MR-

As soon as the seven materialized within the ring of computers they all, almost as one, reached up and unbuckled their helmets removing them and tucking them under an arm.

This turned out to be a mistake for Harry as he was almost immediately assaulted by a feathered cruise missile.

 _-Harry/Wizard!_ \- Hedwig's mental voice was demanding and scolding all at once even as she flapped around his head, buffeting him with her wings on every down-stroke. – _I warned you to be careful, but you still let that Mirror Man trick you! Let him take you where I could not protect you! You need me to protect you Harry/Wizard, I told you that!_ -

Harry tried in vain to shield his head from Hedwig's well-meaning attack, dropping his helmet in the process. Despite her appearance as a normal snowy owl, she still had a core that revealed her mechanical nature, which meant her metal weighted wings hit a lot harder than they once had when she was purely organic. "Gah! Hedwig! Bloody- I'm sorry Hedwig! Ow!"

The other Rangers were of little help, mostly just chuckling and enjoying his suffering under the wings of his familiar until Zordon's voice broke through. "She woke a short time ago and I felt it prudent to teleport her here for your arrival, Harry. I felt that it might be better to get this encounter out of the way sooner rather than later."

By this point, Hedwig had finally calmed down enough to perch on Harry's shoulder (with her talons digging in perhaps a tiny bit more than usual, though he couldn't really tell through his protective suit) and began preening his hair. "Yeah, you're probably right, Zordon, though I can't say I really appreciate not having any forewarning."

Zordon and the other let out a brief bout of laughter before the floating head responded. "Be that as it may, I imagine that your familiar is reminding you of the benefits of situational awareness. Even when you believe that you are in a safe place, with Rita around, you must always be wary Power Rangers. This time, the crisis was averted with relatively little damage done, but we cannot always be assured of that in the future."

Harry and the other Rangers nodded, but it was only the wizard who spoke. "I understand, Zordon, and I'm sorry for letting things happen like they did. I'll try to keep that in mind in the future."

"Then the lesson has been learned." Zordon spoke solemnly, nodding in return.

Harry then felt a tap on his arm and turned to find Trini next to him, though she was focusing her gaze on Hedwig. "Are you done with him now, Hedwig? I have a few things I'd like to say."

Harry felt his heart drop slightly when the owl spun her head to look at Trini, then at Harry, then back at Trini before bobbing slightly and taking flight. She flapped her way over to one of the computer consoles before landing and turning once more to watch the encounter to come.

Harry smiled nervously as Trini stepped up closer to him, glaring straight into his eyes. "Uh… Trini?"

Then she full on punched him in the shoulder. Harry stumbled back a step even as Trini started ranting, punctuating every few words by beating on his chest with a fist. "You idiot! Do you have any idea how worried we all were? How worried I was? Kim and I had to find out from Ernie where you went, but we couldn't find any sign of you. It took more than two weeks before Zordon and Alpha were able to find out that you were in Rita's Palace and that certainly didn't make things better! You! Stupid! Idiot! Gah!"

Any reaction Harry might have made, any response he could have given to any of the points she brought up, were rendered completely moot when she grabbed him by the front of the vest/cloak on his Ranger suit and jerked him forward, pulling him into a spontaneous kiss.

Harry's eyes went wide for a moment, briefly taking in equally shocked looks from the other Rangers behind Trini, before he let them slide closed as he began to respond to his girlfriend's rather frantic kiss. He brought his hands up to her waist as the kiss stretched on, but the moment he made contact, Trini drew back suddenly. Harry opened his own eyes to see her staring wide eyed at him, her cheeks turning red, before she turned to the now knowing and smirking faces of her friends before spinning again and burying her face in his chest.

"I cannot believe I just did that in front of everyone…"

Harry struggled to fight down his laughter and his own blush as he wrapped her in a hug, idly rubbing her back soothingly. "Hey, if it's any consolation, I'm not complaining, but I could Obliviate them all if you'd like."

Trini met his eyes again, a contemplative look on her face before her thought process was interrupted by Kimberly's shout. "Heck no! I've been waiting ages for you two to finally kiss! No way am I going to let you erase that memory!"

Then Hedwig had to ruin the moment.

- _Harry/Wizard, if you and Pretty-Yellow are only going to practice courtship behavior then she needs to step aside. I have not yet finished scolding you._ -

Harry refused to explain his exasperated groan no matter how much the others questioned him. He also refused to get more than a few feet away from Trini, though at this point, neither of them were complaining.

-MR-

Thanks for reading and don't forget to review,

Tenstar12


	35. Chapter 35

Magi Ranger

By: Tenstar12

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or Power Rangers.

 **Chapter 35, or Power Ranger Day! Best! Idea! Ever!**

In the wake of Harry's kidnapping and rescue, there was a good bit of work to be done for the dimensionally displaced wizard: He, with the help of the other Rangers, had to arrange for his reintegration into society. This included coming up with a suitable cover story that would help keep the people of Angel Grove in the dark.

Initially, Harry had suggested just telling the truth, slightly modified to help hide his status as a Ranger. His suggestion would have the entirety of Angel Grove knowing that Harry Potter was kidnapped by Rita Repulsa for some unknown reason and was then rescued by the Power Rangers.

Needless to say, the other Rangers shut this down quite quickly.

It was Trini who first pointed out the attention that that would bring upon Harry, far above and beyond what he got after the incident at the bank. In this case he would be specifically involved whereas with the bank he was just a name on a list. Admittedly, he would receive attention regardless of Rita's involvement, but it would be far less if the space witch's name was left out of it. If that wasn't enough, the other Rangers couldn't think of a single plausible reason for Harry to have been targeted by Rita other than him being a Ranger, a detail that they felt such a story couldn't do without. It was rather possible they were too close to the problem, so to speak, but ultimately they all decided, supported by Zordon, that it would bring up a few too many questions to chance Harry's identity on it, even with the Grid's protection.

Besides all that, Ernie, with some support from the Rangers, had filed a missing persons report on him a few days after he had gone missing. While the Rangers hadn't thought it would do too much good as they knew there were very few Earthly threats that could harm their magic wielding teammate, they couldn't really talk the kindly man out of it. And after so long with no leads on his disappearance, the police had released the information to the public in the hope that someone knew something.

This was yet another aspect that made it a bad idea to involve Rita in their explanation. If the people of Angel Grove started worrying that they could be randomly snatched up by Rita at any given time, it could cause all sorts of problems, general aura of peace and happiness caused by the Grid's focal point or not.

In the end, a story was settled on that was partially truthful, while still avoiding getting close enough to the facts to cause them problems.

And so it was that Harry James Potter, approximately 19 days after he was last seen in public, stumbled into the outskirts of Angel Grove, California, covered in dirt, showing signs of malnutrition and dehydration, and carrying some heavily damaged and very basic camping supplies.

Of course the supplies were conjured and just generally magiced into their worn condition and the symptoms he was displaying were created with a bit of clever spellwork, but the effect was the same either way.

The story he told the police when he was interviewed was that he had accepted a small magic job from a stranger with a Jamaican accent at the Youth Center. After arriving at the designated location, a suburb on the outskirts of the city, he knew he had started his performance, but most of his memory of the event were fuzzy. What he guessed was that at some point he had passed out and when he awoke he found himself tied by ropes and being manhandled out of a SUV somewhere in the mountains to the North of the city.

Fortunately for Harry, the kidnapper hadn't secured his hands very well and Harry was able to free himself shortly after the man deposited him on the ground and turned back to their vehicle. Unfortunately for the kidnapper, Harry was partially trained in Martial Arts, and was able to catch the man off guard when he sprung up at him. Unfortunately for Harry, the man managed to wrestle his way free after a lucky blow that left Harry dazed. By the time he had recovered himself, the man had jumped back in his vehicle and sped off, leaving Harry with the clothes on his back, a length of rope, and a pack that the man had been carrying from the SUV when Harry jumped him. The pack had, conveniently enough, contained some basic camping/survival supplies and the like, which, along with an insane amount of luck, allowed Harry to survive for the 19 days he was lost. He probably wouldn't have been missing for so long if he hadn't had so much trouble getting oriented when finding his way back. Harry was certainly no outdoorsman though, so he couldn't really be blamed for that.

It took several run-throughs before the detectives assigned to talk with him were satisfied that Harry had told them all he knew. It certainly helped that the other Rangers had drilled Harry on this story mercilessly the day before to make sure he didn't mix anything up. They all figured that any small detail of Harry's story that changed could cause all kinds of problems with his believability, which would open up a whole new set of troubles and so was best avoided.

Once the officers were done interrogating him they informed him that his magic supplies and props had been recovered by the true owner of the house he had performed at. It was one bit of evidence that supported foul play in his disappearance early in the investigation and would be returned to him within the week. With that out of the way, Harry was immediately shipped off to a hospital where he was poked, prodded, examined, tested, and generally treated for all of his "symptoms." It was at this point that Harry was forced to use a plethora of Confundus charms and other similar spells to make sure that his story held up medically as well. It wouldn't do for him to test as being mostly alright when he was supposed to have barely survived a life or death hiking trip through the mountains.

The entire ruse was supported by the arrival of Tommy, Kimberly, Zack, and Trini, who all rushed into his room, of course incredibly happy to see their friend after so long and more than thrilled that he was alright. After a bit of prompting (read: teasing) from Kimberly and Zack, Trini even reenacted her own greeting from the Command Center right there in his hospital room while he was confined to the bed, though with significantly less hitting, a less spontaneous kiss that was also perhaps less intense, and a great deal more blushing during the rant.

Harry was later congratulated by one of the male nurses on having such an attractive girlfriend who obviously cared about him so much. Harry just smiled in return and commented on his insane levels of luck.

Once Harry was released from the hospital, again with judicious use of spells to ease the way a bit quicker than usual, he was faced with yet another problem: Ernie. The lovable man was almost as worried about Harry as the Rangers had been and nearly crushed his employee in a hug the moment Harry walked into the Youth Center.

Ernie then spent the next several minutes ranting about how he knew that there had been something weird about that guy and that he shouldn't have let Harry go off on that job. That if he had voiced his concerns, maybe Harry wouldn't have gotten stranded for so long and wouldn't have come so close to death. Apparently the tests from the hospital had been leaked and his spells made him appear closer to death than he had thought. The police detectives were even commenting on how he had seemed quite alright to talk during their interviews and that if they had known how bad he had really been that they would have conducted the interviews after the hospital visit.

It was a huge mess no matter which way you looked at it.

In any case, Ernie hadn't really let up on his overprotective bit since, and his return had been staged a few weeks ago. In the meantime, Rita had made no further moves toward Earth, though the occasional pulses of magic detected from her palace by the Command Center sensors and occasionally by Harry and Zordon when the pulses were strong enough let them know that she was far from inactive. When compared to the worry this brought upon Harry and the other Rangers, the near constant jokes about camping (mostly from Bulk and Skull) were fairly easy for the Magi Ranger to ignore.

Speaking of…

"Hey, geek!" the overweight bully shouted upon entering the main area of the Youth Center and catching sight of Harry behind the counter. "I heard you were planning another camping trip. I might be able to give you a few tips if you want. It might keep you from nearly killing yourself this time." This was immediately followed by Skull's shrill laughter accompanied by the parroting of Bulk's last several words and more laughter.

Harry just rolled his eyes and focused on his cooking.

A few moments later, Harry imagined he could feel the floor shaking as Bulk stomped his way up the few stairs to the food court area of the Youth Center and over to the counter. "Hey! I was talking to you, geek! You think you're so cool, huh? You think you can get away with ignoring us just because you were on the news? Well news flash! We were on the news too, and for a much better reason than nearly killing ourselves on a camping trip."

This was apparently the source behind Bulk and Skull's continued attempts at taunting Harry: they felt he had usurped their popularity with the people of Angel Grove with his kidnapping and subsequent return. The fact that most people didn't even remember their minor interview on the events of Rita's solar eclipse didn't seem to register with the two.

And so Harry cooked on.

It was a rather familiar tactic for the Magi Ranger of late, burying himself in his work to avoid those wishing to speak of his ordeal. If he wasn't working he was typically with one of the other Rangers and so could beg off talking of it by manner of propriety. It had worked well so far, though such subtleties were lost on Bulk and Skull, in most cases only driving them to try harder, to talk louder.

In this case, Bulk decided to grab a ketchup bottle from the counter and spray Harry with the red condiment, splattering it all down his left side. "I said I was talking to you, Potter!"

Harry took a deep breath and counted to ten internally. It wouldn't do to turn the idiots into toads. It would completely blow his cover, not to mention being generally insulting to toads everywhere.

Luckily enough before Harry was forced to turn and interact with the bullies, Ernie swept in to deal with the two. "Alright, you two, that's enough! I've dealt with you causing trouble around here every once in a while, but now you're wasting my ketchup and assaulting my employees. OUT!"

Bulk and Skull almost immediately started protesting, claiming that they had been provoked or something, Harry wasn't really paying attention to be honest. Ernie just made his way out from behind the counter and grabbed each of them by their shirts, hauling them bodily to the entryway of the Youth Center's main room and shoving them through. "And don't come back for a week. If I see you here before then, I'll ban you for even longer!"

With a final huff, Ernie turned around to find every eye in the Youth Center trained on him. As it was shortly after noon on a Saturday, there were quite a few eyes to be trained. Blushing slightly, Ernie smiled and waved a bit before making his way back over to and behind the counter to speak with Harry. "You alright, Harry?"

Harry nodded to his boss even as the man offered him a roll of paper towels to try and clean off with. "Yeah, I'll live. It's only ketchup after all."

Ernie just huffed again. "All the same, I should have stepped in sooner. I might have to take a firmer stance against that kind of behavior in the future if those two feel like they can go as far as they do without reprisal."

Harry shrugged, wiping ineffectively at the red stains on the silvery-grey shirt he was wearing under his work apron. "I somehow doubt those two will ever get the memo, Ernie…"

Ernie sighed while nodding sadly, his eyes betraying his internal mirth even as a much more welcome laugh rang out across the area, quickly followed by Zack as he slid into a seat at the counter. "Going for a new look there, Harry?"

Harry rolled his eyes. "Oh yeah, Zack. It's the latest design from Chez Bulk and Skull. Do you like?"

Zack winced, glancing around a bit before catching sight of the offending condiment bottle and speaking again. "Ketchup?"

Harry nodded. "I was ignoring them. Apparently that is a high offense."

"I don't know why anything those two do surprises me anymore, seriously." Kimberly said as she and the other Rangers walked up, gathering around Zack. After a moment of silence during which Harry gave up removing any more of the stains as a bad job until he could magic them away, Kimberly spoke again. "So, Harry, are you still planning on meeting us at the Power Ranger Day Festival?"

Harry sighed internally. The Power Ranger Day Festival was the creation of the Mayor of Angel Grove, Mayor Carrington. With the decrease in overall activity from Rita in recent months, the Mayor had decided to celebrate what she saw as the inevitable victory of the Rangers over the space witch. While Harry didn't want to say that he didn't think the Rangers would win, not in the least because he is one of said Rangers, he still felt that the celebration was a bit preemptive.

He had been against the concept almost from the beginning, but the other Rangers (mostly Trini if he was honest) had managed to talk him into going with them to enjoy the festival. Word had it that the mayor had brought in a carnival group and who knows how many other games and activities to entertain the public, though she had been quoted as hoping that the Rangers themselves might deign to make an appearance as a main attraction of sorts.

Harry, aside from his general disdain for politicians and their clearly political moves, felt that such a festival was just creating a massive target for Rita, though that could just be his paranoia talking.

And so, Harry replied to Kimberly's question, though he was less than enthusiastic about it. "Yes, Kimberly. I'll be meeting the six of you there after I help Ernie close down the Youth Center." It was the one saving grace to the situation as far as he was concerned. Ernie was planning on closing early so that he himself could partake in the celebration and had asked Harry to help him with the closing duties. This way, he would miss an additional few hours of the festival with a legitimate excuse.

And then Ernie went on to rain on his parade. "Actually, Harry, why don't you go ahead and take off now. I can close up by myself and you look like you'd need to head home, which you still haven't told me the location of by the way, and get a change of clothes before heading to the fair anyway."

"But Ernie, I-"

Ernie cut him off. "I won't hear another word on it, Harry. Go ahead and enjoy the rest of your day with your friends."

Harry gave another internal sigh. While Ernie may not have known of Harry's general disdain for the Power Rangers Day Festival, the other Rangers certainly did, and they were all currently giving him satisfied smirks. While Ernie may have thought that Harry would have to run home to change first, the others knew he merely needed to get somewhere private and cast a simple cleaning charm on himself before he would be ready to head out.

Giving in to inevitability, Harry thanked Ernie before hanging up his apron and leaving the Youth Center with the other six Rangers following close behind. Shortly after they left the building, Trini came up next to him and took his hand shyly, getting a soft smile from Harry that she returned as the group started walking toward Angel Grove Park.

Partway there, Harry was able to duck into an alley and magically clean himself of the grime that comes with cooking and the extra helping of ketchup care of Bulk before rejoining the group and their conversation, of course regarding the upcoming festival. Kimberly was actually reading a quote from a newspaper clipping she had pulled from her back pocket.

"And because of their contribution to justice, and their unending efforts to protect the entire planet, Angel Grove city officials have declared today as Power Ranger Day. Mayor Carrington hopes that the mysterious superheroes will make a public appearance in Angel Grove Park where countless fans will be gathered to celebrate them." Kimberly glanced slyly around at her friends and teammates. "I have a feeling that the Power Rangers will show up. don't you?"

Tommy chuckled at his girlfriend. "I agree that the Power Rangers may well show up, but the question is whether or not the Magi Ranger will make a public appearance alongside them…" Tommy turned to raise a questioning eyebrow toward his student.

Harry just rolled his eyes. "We'll see, guys. I still don't think this is a good idea. What if Rita attacks the festival? I mean, it's practically a huge taunt aimed right at her with the way Carrington set things up."

Jason shrugged, a smile on his face. "Well, if Rita does try and cause some trouble, then we'll all be there to fight her off and protect the city like we always do."

"Yeah," Zack jumped into the conversation, bouncing through a few dance steps in excitement as he walked. "Wouldn't that be a heck of a way for us to show up? Fighting off some putties and a monster before greeting our adoring fans?"

"Oh, sure, Zack." Harry scoffed. "Let's put the huge crowd of people in danger because you want to put on a show." Harry glared lightly at the Black Ranger who had the decency to look somewhat ashamed. "If Rita does decide to attack, we'll have to worry about protecting all the people before anything else. This entire thing has the potential to be a huge disaster."

A tense silence settled over the Rangers after Harry's comment as they all really thought about Harry's view on the entire festival. The Magi Ranger had been rather uneasy since his return from Rita's Palace, and so they had largely dismissed his concerns, getting swept up in their own excitement at the concept of an entire festival/holiday for _them_. It was a difference between Harry, jaded with the trappings of fame due to his own experiences with the Boy-Who-Lived craze, versus the Rangers who were liked, but not necessarily celebrated in any official capacity. But with the day upon them now, they couldn't help but see his point.

The group traveled a few more blocks in silence before it was broken again by Billy. "So, Zack, are you planning on meeting with Angela to enjoy the festivities?"

This proved to be enough to break the tension, mostly because everyone readily grasped onto the change of subject. "Of course, man," Zack replied eagerly, spinning as he walked, his enthusiasm returned. "We're gonna meet there and spend some time cruising the games and rides."

"We should probably all do that and plan on meeting up again before the mayor makes her presentation." Kimberly interjected, still perusing her newspaper. "The report says that it's scheduled for 4 o'clock, so we have a couple of hours still."

"Prodigious!" Billy responded, smiling brightly. "Perhaps I'll be able to locate Marge as well so we can peruse the educational and scientific exhibits!"

As always, Harry was rather unsure on the state of things between the brainy Ranger and his equally brainy maybe-girlfriend. He rarely ever saw the girl around the Youth Center and never specifically in Billy's company, but the occasional mentions the Ranger made of her were enough to keep him wondering.

And based on the curious looks of the other Rangers he wasn't the only one and Billy was maintaining his silence.

-MR-

The Rangers continued on their trek and reached the entrance to Angel Grove Park within a few minutes. The entire area had been decked out with streamers and posters advertising the Power Rangers Day Festival and the stream of people filing into the park was going strong.

Just beyond the parking lot and main entrance to the park, there was a stage set up with a heavy curtain hanging down in front of it. All around the area there were what looked like inflated tubes crisscrossing around each other in the signature colors of the seven Power Rangers. The carnival workers had set up their rides and games off to the North of the stage, straight back from the entrance, while there were several other booths and activities sponsored and hosted by various businesses around Angel Grove that had set up to the East.

After reminding everyone of their rendezvous later on where, presumably, they would be discussing the possibility of sneaking off to morph and put in a personal appearance, the group split up. Kimberly and Tommy set off together toward the carnival while Billy set off for the booths, searching for both Marge and something to tickle his intellectual fancy. Jason followed after the Blue Ranger, commenting on a youth martial arts tournament being hosted by a local karate dojo that some of his students were participating in. Zack almost immediately began looking around the stage area for Angela, as that was where she had indicated that she would meet him, which left Trini and Harry to their own devices.

Shrugging, Trini grabbed Harry's hand and practically dragged him toward the carnival. Despite Harry's misgivings due to his last experience with a carnival, it only took her reminding him of their first out-of-suit meeting also being in a carnival (though admittedly the same one that caused his misgivings) for him to grudgingly give in and at least try to enjoy himself.

Not-so-surprisingly, Harry found that he greatly enjoyed the scramblers and roller coasters, small scale though they may have been in order for the carnival to keep to its mobile nature. While Trini didn't necessarily enjoy those as much, she did manage to absolutely annihilate Harry when they rode the bumper cars.

After passing by a fair few carnival games, most of which Trini assured Harry were merely scams and nearly impossible to win even if some of the prizes looked nice ("And no, you can't use your magic to win them despite all that.") the two found themselves about an hour away from their scheduled meeting time with the rest of the Rangers. Having ridden all the rides they wanted to at the carnival, the couple decided to head over toward the booths and see what was on offer there.

Many of the setups were little more than advertising for their businesses and handing out cheap advertising material in the form of bags, paper fans, whistles, pens, and the like. Occasionally, there would be drawings to sign up for, provided of course you gave them your name and address so you could be inundated with junk mail. Some of the booths, like one of the larger ones run by the Angel Grove School Corporation, were displaying several art pieces done by their students and putting them up for judging by the public.

After wandering for a bit, Harry and Trini found the martial arts tournament Jason had mentioned, with the Red Ranger watching intently from nearby, and they spent a bit of time watching the bout in progress. It was a fight between two young teens, one of which was one of Jason's students, which explained the Ranger's level of focus. They watched the rest of the match, which was won by Jason's student, and cheered along with everyone else before moving on again.

While wandering through the maze of advertising and games, Trini turned to face Harry and spoke. "Do you really think that Rita will try something today, Harry?"

Harry nodded grimly. "Yeah, she's up to something up there, I know it. Especially since I can feel her magic every so often. It hasn't been any more common today than any other day, and Zordon hasn't called with anything out of the ordinary from the sensors either, but… Well, just look around!" Harry waved his free hand at the booths around them. While they were all run by different companies, all of them had gotten involved in the Power Rangers Day spirit and their booths were sporting various Power Ranger themed decorations. "Each and every person here is celebrating the Power Rangers and, perhaps indirectly, the fact that Rita is always losing. The whole thing is just one big insult to her, even if it wasn't designed that way."

Trini's face grew grim as she took in his words. "Well, when you put it that way, you really do have a point…" Checking her watch, Trini gave his hand a squeeze. "Come on, let's head back to the stage. The others should be there soon and I'd rather we were all together if Rita really does do something."

Harry just nodded, even as a chill went up his spine.

-MR-

When the two Rangers returned to the stage area, there were about fifteen minutes left before the mayor's presentation and the crowd was growing. They managed to find Tommy and Kimberly almost immediately, but were forced to rely on some subtle magic from Harry to find the others.

Finally, the collective group of Ranger tracked down Zack, who had been glancing around eagerly with a bag from one of the booths held in one hand. "Hey guys!" the Black Ranger called with a smile, jogging up to them.

"Zack," Harry nodded. "Where's Angela? Didn't you say that you guys were meeting up today?"

Zack nodded back, still smiling. "Yeah, man. And we had a blast with all the games and such. She had to run to the little girls room and said she was gonna head for the actual brick buildings instead of the porta-johns. She told me to go ahead so I wouldn't miss anything and gave me my goodnight kiss in case she couldn't find me again." He glanced back and forth with a conspiratorial smirk before leaning closer to Harry. "If it isn't any trouble, do you think you could magic me up a way to find her again so I can get a repeat?"

Harry just rolled his eyes even as Trini and Kimberly both took the opportunity to smack one of Zack's arms.

Shrugging off his teammates' response, Zack reached into his bag and began rummaging around. "Anyway, I've got something for you guys…"

The other Rangers just exchanged glances briefly before Zack brought their attention back to him with a cry of success. And then he pulled a doll out of his bag.

A Power Ranger doll…

A _Magi_ Ranger doll…

Harry groaned and smacked his forehead with his free hand.

Zack just laughed before tossing the doll to Harry, who caught it reflexively, and reaching into his bag again, ultimately producing a doll for each of them in the form of their alter egos.

They weren't really the best quality toy, being little more than a cotton stuffed, human shaped pillow around six inches tall, but they were rather standard fare for carnival prizes, a thought that Zack confirmed with his next statement. "Yeah, the Zack-man has still got it," he said with a smile. "I won one of those at a ring toss booth over in the carnival and I figured, hey, I might as well go for the whole set, right?" He punctuated his statement by pulling out a Black Ranger doll for himself and smiling brightly at his friends' exasperated faces.

Then Zack paused for a moment, glancing between Tommy and Kimberly and then Harry and Trini before his eyes widened. "Oh! I'm sorry!" He stepped forward and yanked the Magi Ranger doll from his hands before swapping it with Trini's Yellow Ranger doll and giving that to Harry. He then repeated the swap with Tommy and Kimberly. "I gave you four the wrong dolls!"

At this point Trini was blushing and had hidden most of her face in Harry's shoulder, though she still kept one eye free to glare at Zack who was now laughing again. Harry himself was leveling his own glare at Zack for his little prank, but the Ranger seemed completely unfazed. Jason and Billy were both chuckling to themselves, so there was no help coming from there, and Tommy and Kimberly were in much the same state as Harry and Trini.

Luckily enough, a distraction appeared in the form of Bulk and Skull strutting their way onto the stage… wearing spandex costumes and capes…

"With iron chests, and arms of steel…" Bulk spoke into a microphone, immediately drawing the attention of the crowd onto him. He was wearing a largely blue outfit with a backwards yellow "B" on it and black boots and gloves with a domino mask to top it off. He wore a yellow belt with several objects hanging off of the front of it along with a purple cape that didn't even reach down to his waist.

"We've got real superhero appeal…" Skull continued, though slightly herder to hear as Bulk was hogging the microphone, striking a pose next to Bulk. Skull was wearing a purple outfit with similar boots, gloves and mask. His belt was brown and had nothing more than an oversized buckle on it, but his blue cape billowed out behind him and looked to be dragging the ground as he moved.

"We'll protect this city with all our might… Bulkster!"

"And Super Skull!"

"Will set things right!" The two spoke the final line together and left the crowd entirely silent. If one ignored the sounds of the carnival rides and such, Harry imagined he would have been able to hear crickets, so deep was the crowd's shock and confusion.

Zack's prank now forgotten, Jason stepped forward with a look that was equal parts amusement and confusion. "Come on, guys. This is something I've just gotta see…"

Even Harry couldn't help but agree with Jason in this regard and joined his fellows in following the Red Ranger to a better vantage point amongst the crowd. As they got closer, Harry was finally able to make out the objects on Bulk's belt as a large foam pizza as the buckle with a hamburger and a hot dog on either side. Apparently the Bulkster had a thing for food… much the same could be said of his alter ego…

"Hello good citizens of Angel Grove," Bulk began speaking again, most likely once he decided that the crowd had grown around him to a sufficient point to support his ego. "And welcome to this city's most historic moment… A moment when two of the most dynamic, powerful, and incredible superheroes ever to walk the earth decided to move to this fair city… And protect it." The entire time Bulk was speaking, Skull was striking poses next to him. Harry supposed the effect was supposed to be dramatic or striking, but most of the crowd has broken down into whispered conversations and there were a few chuckles to be heard as the two bullies made fools of themselves.

"Hey, Harry…" Tommy asked, leaning toward the Magi Ranger and catching the attention of the rest of the Rangers. "This isn't any form of… magical payback after Bulk's little ketchup stunt, is it?"

Harry shook his head, still staring in amazement at the two morons on stage. "No, Tommy, I don't think I could even begin to dream up something as ridiculous as this even if I was inclined to get some payback on those two… I mean… I can't… Just… Why?" By this point Harry was merely gesturing helplessly toward Bulk and Skull, at a loss for words.

"That is one question even modern science cannot hope to answer in our lifetime," Billy responded solemnly, bringing a chuckle from the others even as Bulk and Skull continued their presentation.

"Of course, I am talking about myself," here, Bulk gestured to himself with a twirl of his hand. "And my sidekick." He briefly jerked a thumb in Skull's direction at this. "I'm…" Now bulk began waving his hands in the air before striking a strongman pose that would have been more impressive if it hadn't been so absolutely ridiculous. "The Incredible Bulkster!"

"And I'm…" Skull whipped his cape around himself, serving to hide most of his body behind the overly long piece of cloth. "Super Skull, boy wonderful."

At this statement, the crowd largely burst into laughter, even as a few kids up close demanded to know what kind of superpowers the two "heroes" had. The two then launched into a series of poses and faux martial arts moves that sent the entire crowd into near hysterics.

It was only the fact that Bulk and Skull seemed oblivious to how stupid they looked and the fact that they were making themselves out as laughing stocks that kept Harry and the other Rangers from laughing along with them. It wasn't that they liked the two, far from it in fact, but it still lowered the humor of the situation knowing how pathetic the bullies really were in their quest for fame and recognition.

And then, Bulk and Skull vanished.

The crowd stopped laughing almost immediately and Harry felt his feeling of foreboding surge forth anew.

"Hey…" Zack asked, his brow furrowing in confusion. "Where'd they go?"

Then another group of people, these ones the closest to the stage, vanished as well, glowing briefly with a flashing aura of purple light before they were gone.

"Look over there!" Jason shouted, pointing to the now empty space.

"What's going on?" Trini asked, looking around frantically as if to find a source for the people's disappearance.

Then Harry finally noticed the buildup of Power mere moments before another bunch of people, this one making up a full quarter of the assembled crowd, vanished just like the others.

Harry growled. "It's Rita! I felt her magic just before that last group disappeared."

"It's what!" Jason demanded, turning to face Harry just as everyone else in the crowd around them disappeared as well.

In less than twenty seconds, the Power Ranger Day Festival had gone from teeming with people as everyone in Angel Grove who had been able to come prepared to celebrate their heroes to only the seven Power Rangers. The carnival rides were almost ominous now as they continued to run without their passengers or operators and without the accompanying screams of enjoyment.

Harry turned to face Zack. "Well, Zack, you were the one who was hoping Rita would attack… It looks like you got your wish…"

-MR-

Thanks for reading and don't forget to review,

Tenstar12


	36. Chapter 36

Magi Ranger

By: Tenstar12

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or Power Rangers.

 **Chapter 36, in which the Downhill Momentum Continues and Rita Becomes a Chandler**

Harry felt he could almost hear the wind whistling through Angel Grove Park. Once teeming with people there for the Power Rangers Day celebration, the complete absence of life aside from the Rangers, coupled with the cheery carnival music that now took an almost sinister tone, was more than a bit unsettling.

And then the Rangers were surrounded by a ring of Putty Patrollers before any plans could be made.

The Rangers gathered together in a circle, facing outward, and as always, it was Jason who took the lead. "Let's waste these clay brains!"

"Right!" The other Rangers, sans Harry, chanted before the entire group, this time including Harry, dashed forward.

Harry's first target stepped forward before jumping into a tornado kick that Harry ducked under while still on the move. Harry then sidestepped behind the putty before driving his elbow into the back of its head with a fierce "Aiyaa!"

Tommy had had a bit of an effect on his fighting style beyond just teaching him the mechanics.

Moving on to the next closest putty, Harry took the first strike, launching a flurry of punches to the golem's torso, stunning it long enough for a combined palm strike/wandless banisher to launch it backwards into one of its fellows.

Before he could select his next target, Harry found himself grabbed from either side by another pair of putties that then heaved him into the air, throwing him several feet away from the others. As soon as he landed, three more of the creatures began raining down blows, their hands transformed into large spheres for extra weight. It was all Harry could do to curl up and protect his head as the putties did their level best to beat him into the ground.

"Harry!" Billy's voice called out just as, with a deep voiced kiai of his own, the Blue Ranger kicked away one of the three putties keeping Harry pinned.

With one of them gone and the other two distracted, Harry was able to roll to his back and plant his hands on the ground over his shoulders before kicking out to catch both putties in the chest and springboard off of them, propelling himself into a backwards roll that ended with the Magi Ranger on his feet once again. The two putties he struck didn't do more than stumble back a few steps, but when Billy stepped up next to him and the two Rangers delivered a pair of simultaneous Power-enhanced kicks they found themselves as airborne has Harry had been.

"Thanks, Billy." Harry said, panting slightly even as he patted Billy's shoulder in thanks.

"No problem, Harry." Billy replied. "You looked as though you were in a rather difficult predicament."

Harry just nodded as he surveyed the battle between his teammates and the putties. It was only now that he looked at the entire group that he realized that they were fighting more putties than he had seen at once outside of Rita's palace. He, and the others he presumed, had been too focused on the immediate battles to really take notice, but there were easily twenty to thirty putties stumbling around as they fought against the Power Rangers. It would be a relatively trivial challenge if the Rangers were to morph, but with the whole "no escalation" thing, Harry knew that Jason wouldn't call for a morph against "only" putties and none of the others would morph without the leader's call.

"Bloody hell…" Harry breathed, shooting Billy a grim glance that the genius returned.

"Affirmative…" Billy responded. "I don't suppose you could even the odds a bit, could you Harry?"

Harry snorted even as he called up his magic and drew and transformed his Power Coin wand. "I suppose that that would be a good idea, yes." Without another word, Billy rushed back into the fray, leaving Harry to his magic while he moved to more directly support the others.

Taking careful aim, Harry let loose with a flurry of incapacitating spells. He knew he had to use less dangerous spells because of the putties' relative proximity to the other Rangers. Although there were a few close calls, particularly with Jason and Tommy who were much more aggressive and unpredictable in their movements, he managed to avoid friendly fire. And when, on a few occasions he spotted a clear shot away from his teammates, he would cast a stunner or reductor curse to take the putty out of the battle more reliably.

*Flash* A putty that was trying to launch a kick into Zack's back found its legs stuck together, causing it to lose balance and fall to the ground.

*Flash* Another putty found itself caught in mid-leap by a levitation charm, floating off to one side before being dropped onto a pair of its fellows, sending the three of them sprawling.

*Flash* A putty attempting to flip closer to Jason found its hands stuck to the earth when they touched.

*Flash* A flying kick from one putty heading toward where Trini and Kimberly were fighting together was intercepted as another putty was summoned into its path.

*Flash-BOOM* A group of three putties, deciding that leaving the larger battle in order to charge Harry were met with an exploding curse.

And on it went for thirty seconds stretched much longer by Harry's adrenaline fueled perception, until…

"MAGELING!" Goldar roared, appearing a short distance to Harry's left in a flash of light.

Already in a casting mood, Harry immediately spun and sent a blasting curse at the armored simian, not at all wanting to give the monster any advantage he could prevent. The curses traveled the distance between them quickly, catching Goldar off guard if his wide eyed look was any indication, before he was knocked back by the explosion.

Harry began pacing forward, his wand a blur as he cast a more destructive series of spells than he had used before, mixing cutters, exploding curses, blasting curses, and a few "darker" curses like bone breakers along with Snape's Sectumsempra. He cast all of his spells silently, of course, keeping in mind Rita's attempts to learn his magic, but it also felt good to let out a bit of his frustration on Goldar in his first chance to do so since his captivity.

With each spell that hit the armored monster, a new explosion and shower of sparks flew off him. Each time Goldar managed to dodge a spell or block it with his sword, another two were waiting for him or slipped past his guard as Harry's spell chaining amped up his casting speed. After another thirty seconds of continuous spellfire, Goldar was clearly struggling, his apparently magic resistant armor covered in scorch marks and even a few small gouges where some of the stronger spells hit.

"It's a bit different when you aren't the one in power, isn't it Goldar." Harry said with a smirk before sending another pair of exploding curses to knock the monster off his feet. Goldar's face was twisted in a sneer, though that was barely visible due to the swollen and abused flesh there. The lack of face protection in his armor was really working against him.

"I will destroy you, Mageling." The downed monster growled. "One day, I will destroy you and all you cherish."

Harry just rolled his eyes. "If you say so Goldar. I am more than accustomed to psychos swearing vengeance against me."

Goldar's eyes flicked to the side briefly before his look of anger changed to one of smug satisfaction. Harry's eyes narrowed and he snapped off a quick volley of curses that Goldar rolled to the side to dodge before rising back to his feet. "Another time, Mageling, my work here is done for now." And with that, Goldar vanished in another flash of light just as Kimberly's voice echoed across the area.

"TOMMY!"

Harry spun back toward the main fight and saw that all the putties had vanished from around his teammates, each of whom was looking rather scuffed after the battle. The worst off was Kimberly though, who had dropped to her knees and was staring ahead with fear and worry written across her face. Tommy was nowhere in sight.

Harry quickly jogged over with the others, coming in range soon enough to hear Trini ask. "What happened, Kimberly?"

Kimberly blinked a few times before looking up at her friends and spoke. "The putties took Tommy! There were too many for me, but Tommy fought them off at first. And then they grabbed him and vanished!"

-MR-

In short order, the remaining Rangers had teleported to the Command Center and reported Tommy's abduction. Zordon was understandably concerned. "Based on what you have told me, Rangers, and particularly Harry's report on what Goldar said to him, I fear that Tommy's abduction was the goal of this latest attack."

"But why did all the people vanish too, Zordon?" Jason asked, stepping forward as he was wont to do. "What does anyone else have to do with our battle with Rita?"

Zordon hummed in thought for a moment, closing his eyes briefly before speaking. "I have told you all about the Grid's focal point located in Angel Grove and how Rita's ultimate goal is gaining unfettered access to it. I spoke of how the Grid protects the innocents that are inadvertently brought into the line of fire during the course of our battles, but there is a bit more to it than that…"

Harry felt a frown growing on his face even as Trini stepped a bit closer to his side, taking his hand in hers in an attempt to provide comfort. It was no secret to the other Rangers about how Harry felt in regard to civilians getting involved in their battles against Rita's monsters. Hearing now that there was more detail to Zordon's initial explanation after Harry's whole fire rescue adventure brought more of those bad feelings to the surface.

Zordon too took note of Harry's rapidly souring mood as he seemed to choose his next words carefully. "The Grid not only protects the people around its focal point, the focal point is actually anchored by those people. It is the people of Angel Grove, and indeed all the sentient living creatures that have ever lived in this geographical location, that have kept the focal point here. Because of this anchoring effect, if any harm were to come to these anchors, the civilians, then the focal point could destabilize, potentially moving it early if not destroying it entirely."

"So is that why Rita kidnapped all the people?" Zack asked. "So she can move the focal point somewhere else?"

Zordon's head shook side to side, a singularly curious image for a floating head. "No, Zackary. The location of the focal point is not determined by the anchors, rather the anchors are determined by the location. It is less about where the focal point is and more about what state it is in."

Billy was the next to provide an idea. "So would kidnapping the people cause the focal point to begin to break down? Is that her plan?"

Again, Zordon shook his head. "Not at all, Billy. As I mentioned before, it is believed that Angel Grove's focal point remained undiscovered for five thousand years before our struggle commenced. To be honest, it is not a strategically sound decision for Rita to attempt to force the focal point into an early move. It could reappear within territory that evil forces control, but there is an equal chance for it to appear in an area outside her control, or even simply not at all. And that is assuming that the new location is even discovered in a timely fashion. And in any case, kidnapping the people wouldn't set an early relocation in motion, and I fear that this is not Rita's actual plan."

The silence seemed heavy as everyone processed this information. Finally, Harry was the one to ask the question on everyone's minds. "So what do you think she's up to, Zordon?"

Zordon sighed before responding. "I fear that the constant stream of losses in battle has pushed Rita in a desperate direction. The constant surges of magic Harry and I have been detecting these past weeks coupled with the abduction of the citizens of Angel Grove leads me to believe that she is going to attempt one final assault. Removing the people simply means that she won't have to limit her actions for fear of destabilizing the focal point."

As if in response to this somewhat dark portent, the alarms in the Command Center went off, making the Rangers jump. "Ai yai yai yai yai!" Alpha chanted, panicking as usual. "The sensors are picking up a surge of Power stronger than ever before coming from Rita's palace…" The robot paused for a moment before speaking again, fear and awe in his voice. "Zordon… I… I think Rita's palace is moving…"

Alpha turned to face the Viewing Globe, prompting the Rangers to follow his lead without a word. The globe lit up from within as always, showing the starscape background image of Rita's palace which was, just as Alpha had said, lifting off from the surface of the moon, the entire building cloaked in a visible miasma of magic.

Harry was rather taken aback at the amount of magic required for such a feat. Rita's palace was nowhere near the size of Hogwarts, which was really his only other experience with castles and the like, but it was still a respectably sized building. "Wha- What does this mean, Zordon?" Harry stammered, keeping his gaze locked on the Viewing Globe as he spoke.

Zordon sighed again. "It means, Harry, that my fears have been realized. Rita is bringing her palace to Earth in order to fuel her most dangerous weapon: Cyclopsis."

The image in the globe changed to show an alien landscape, buildings standing as tall as those in Angel Grove with trees of equal height growing alongside them, nature mixed with civilization. The alien cityscape was disturbed in a flash of light as a massive machine appeared amongst the buildings. It was humanoid in shape and was largely white in color with a few red accents here and there. It had a large spike coming from the top of its head and a rather large set of layered pauldrons that made its comparatively tiny arms look like they were a bit low on its torso. Its legs were just as bulky looking and the feet were topped by sharply hooked tips. As soon as the light of this machine's appearance faded, it set about destroying the surrounding buildings and knocking the massive trees to the ground as if they were nothing.

Zordon's voice provided a rather macabre narration to this scene of devastation. "This is an image of the last time Rita used Cyclopsis on an alien world many years before she was imprisoned in her space dumpster. It is a War Zord that was fashioned by Rita to cause the maximum amount of devastation in the minimum amount of time. It is arguably one of the most powerful of its kind in existence. Its main weakness is that it uses up far too much Power to run. However, by bringing her palace to Angel Grove and thus the focal point, Rita's Power will increase by nearly ten times, allowing her to provide for Cyclopsis's requirements."

"You said it's a Zord…" Trini trailed off, looking troubled by the image of Cyclopsis firing a barrage of missiles from disguised launchers in its shoulders to destroy another building. "Does that mean that someone is piloting it like we do ours?"

"Indeed, Trini," Zordon confirmed and the image in the globe flickered once again, clearing to show a very familiar golden armored simian working a control panel and laughing darkly. "Goldar pilots the Cyclopsis War Zord to great effect."

When the image faded out again, the Rangers once more turned to face Zordon. It was Kimberly who broke the silence this time. "But, Zordon, what do you think Rita would want with Tommy? Why did the putties take him?"

Zordon hummed in thought before responding. "It is highly likely that she wanted to take Tommy out of the fight to deprive us of his help and that of the Dragonzord in the fight against Cyclopsis. The Dragonzord is a very powerful ally to have and, as it was once under her control, Rita would know that." Zordon turned slightly toward Harry before continuing. "I believe that you might have been a target as well, Harry. That may explain Goldar's presence on the battlefield. He was just not expecting your rather… strong reaction to his appearance. I fear that had you not so successfully held him back that you too would be a captive of Rita's once again."

"Well, hey," Zack interjected suddenly. "If Rita's palace is coming to Earth… then that means that we can break in to rescue Tommy even easier, right?"

Alpha fielded this question. "I'm afraid not Zack. Energy signatures left behind when the putties vanished indicate that he was taken right to Rita's Dark Dimension prison. There is only one known way to get there through Rita's Palace, and no doubt that method has been changed since Harry broke in to rescue Jason."

Billy almost immediately stepped up next to Alpha. "Can you show me those readings, Alpha? I may have something I've been experimenting with that could help with our problem."

While the mechanical and organic brains worked over their numbers, Zordon continued his narrative. "Rita's palace will likely land in or near Angel Grove within the hour, Rangers, and I fear that Cyclopsis will make an appearance shortly thereafter. You must do what you can to prepare yourselves for the battle ahead. It promises to be one of the toughest you've faced yet."

-MR-

Over the next thirty minutes, the Rangers each tried to cope with their nerves in their own ways. Initially, Harry and Trini has spent some time together, all but cuddling on a conjured bench until Kimberly's fretting and pacing forced Trini away to try and calm her friend. Billy continued pouring over calculations with Alpha and seemed completely unaffected, but occasional tense glances at one of the other Rangers was enough to reveal his true state. Zack and Jason had broken into some light sparring off in one corner, trying to work off their nerves through exertion.

Finally, Billy broke the silence as he smiled and began pressing what looked to be a completely random sequence of buttons to Harry. "I've got it, guys! I know how we can reach Tommy!"

Kimberly was at his side almost before Harry could blink, peering at the computer console Billy had been working at only to be completely stymied by the advanced technology. Giving up on deciphering it herself, she asked the resident brain. "What is it Billy?"

Pressing a final button, the Command Center was briefly lit up by the light of teleportation before two identical devices faded into view. The main body of them was a rod about four feet long with a spike on the bottom. At the top of this rod, the devices split into three prongs, the outer two looking like silver pipes with five rings spaced along them extending up and out another three feet and the center one with a short antenna sticking out the top. At the junction, each device had what looked like a pinwheel, spinning constantly while lights at the tops of each pipe blinked.

"I've been working on these molecular decoders for some time, ever since Harry was kidnapped by the Twin Man to be exact." Billy explained. "I was performing some research and experimentation on the feasibility of long distance transportation through the exploitation of naturally occurring transdimensional folds in hopes of circumventing known deterrents to existing teleportation technology. My biggest complication has been that I have only been able to open dimensional doorways, but not create conduits back into our own dimension to be used to facilitate the travel. However, I feel that these results could be most beneficial in resolving our current dilemma."

Harry was not alone in staring blankly at Billy as the Blue Ranger tweaked the devices, a satisfied smile on his face. Even Trini, usually the first one to turn to when a Billy translation was needed, looked rather dumbfounded. Finally, Zack walked up to him and put a hand on his shoulder. "Billy, you know we love you man, but… What?"

It was Zordon that answered. "He had hoped to create an alternative to teleportation with these devices, likely a method that wouldn't be protected against by Rita's spells. Instead, he found a way to open gateways into other dimensions. I presume this means that his molecular decoders can open a doorway to Rita's Dark Dimension if given the right input. If you were to take them to the park where Tommy was taken, there could be enough of a trace left to set the devices properly."

Billy blinked confusedly. "Affirmative… but isn't that what I just said?"

Billy's question remained unanswered.

"Now the only thing left to figure out," Jason started. "Is who we're going to send in after Tommy…"

"I'll go." Kimberly spoke up immediately. "He was helping me when he got caught. It's only right that I go in after him now."

"No, Kim." Jason responded just as quickly. "I should be the one to do it. You haven't been to the Dark Dimension before. It's not an easy place to get used to." Somehow Harry wasn't surprised that Jason, the one who brought up the topic in the first place, was so ready to argue for his own direct involvement.

"I'm afraid that you cannot go either, Jason." Zordon interjected.

"What?" the Red Ranger looked truly befuddled as he turned to face Zordon. "Why not, Zordon?"

"Because we need the five of you here in case the rescue is not successful before Rita's Palace arrives and Cyclopsis is unleashed." Came the response, making Harry close his eyes, expecting what was to come. "The Megazord will be needed to battle against Cyclopsis, which means that Harry is the only real option to rescue Tommy. While Hedwig may be able to fight on her own, the Megazord is more suitable for battling Cyclopsis. Like you, Jason, Harry has been to the Dark Dimension, and while you may be a better fighter, Harry's magic gives him an edge that is harder to defend against."

Trini's grip on Harry's hand tightened as she spoke. "But Zordon, didn't you say that Rita might have been trying to capture Harry in the first place? Wouldn't sending him just be playing into her hands?"

"It is entirely possible, Trini, however I feel that sending Harry may be our only real choice. As long as the dimensional gateway stays open and Harry stays vigilant, Alpha will be able to contact him and teleport him out should something go wrong."

Harry squeezed Trini's hand, drawing her attention to him. "Hey, I'll be alright. Zordon has a point about you guys sticking together. We need to do what's best for the city. I'll be back with Tommy before you know it."

Zack spoke next, nearly dancing in place as his excitement for the impending battle grew. "If our communicators and the teleporters still work while Billy's gateway is open, why don't we just send in more than one? Heck, why not the whole team? Then, if Cyclopsis shows up, we can teleport back out to fight him."

"Ah…" Billy cut in before Zordon could respond. "Actually, that won't be possible, Zack. The molecular decoders are still experimental and aren't quite capable of handling more than two people passing through within a short time period. If we have more people go through, it's highly likely that they will overload and trap the travelers between dimensions."

Kimberly sighed. "And we can't send anyone with Harry because the second person slot will be taken up by Tommy on the way back, right?"

Billy nodded in response before continuing. "Affirmative. In addition, whoever goes through can't be morphed at the time. The dramatic increase in our energy signatures while we're morphed would have a similar effect on the decoders as having too many people going through."

Harry blinked as this new piece of news set in and Zordon began speaking. "Which brings us back to Harry's magic giving him a decided advantage over any opponent he may face."

Seeing everyone looking at him now, Harry nodded firmly. "Well then, I guess there's no point in discussing this further, is there?"

-MR-

With hope to reach Tommy and a plan to work with, it didn't take long for the Rangers to teleport back to the site of the Power Ranger Day celebration. Upon arrival, Billy, coordinating with Alpha, located the exact position that the putties had teleported out with Tommy and directed Zack and Trini to position the molecular decoders while he tweaked their controls.

"It shouldn't take more than a few more minutes to get everything aligned," Billy said, tilting the antenna on one decoder before checking it and then adjusting it slightly. "Once they're aligned, we'll just have to activate them and the gateway to the Dark Dimension will be open."

"And then Harry will go through, grab Tommy, and get back here in time for tea." Zack said with a smirk.

Harry just rolled his eyes, resisting the urge to send a stinging hex at Zack's backside. Only the fact that Zack was currently holding a rather delicate piece of technology that was rather important to their current goals really prevented it.

It was indeed only a few minutes later that Billy directed Zack and Trini to, carefully, drive the spikes at the bottom of the decoders into the ground. Once they were freestanding, Billy made a few more adjustments, turning the poles or tweaking the antenna a bit, before declaring them to be ready.

Harry took a deep breath and let it out slowly, fighting down his nerves even as Billy nodded to Trini and flipped a switch on the first decoder. "Molecular decoder number one, activated." From atop the antenna, electricity began crackling into the open air.

Trini nodded back and, after glancing down to make sure she was flipping the proper switch, turned hers on. "Decoder number two, activated." When her decoder started sparking with electricity, the energy seemed to reach out to that coming from Billy's. When they met in the middle, the energy started to swirl around itself before forming into a deep blue colored vortex floating in midair with electricity dancing around the edges.

"Alright Harry," Jason said with a nod of his own and his familiar serious look on his face. "It's all you."

Harry drew his coin and shifted it to wand form and stepped toward the swirling portal between the two poles. Before he could reach it, however, Trini all but crashed into his side, standing on tiptoe and planting a soft kiss on his cheek. "For luck… Be careful, Harry."

Harry smiled at her, doing his best to keep his own nerves from showing. "No worries, Trini. I'll be back before you know it."

And with that, Harry stepped through the portal.

-MR-

Harry's first reaction upon entering the portal was to wince slightly. The air around him was as supercharged as one might expect from a portal that had appeared to be formed from electricity, resulting in a tingle that constantly danced over his entire body in a nonstop sensation. The second thing he noticed was the incredible feeling of speed as he was pushed through the interdimensional tunnel toward Rita's Dark Dimension prison.

Finally, Harry saw a proverbial light at the end of the tunnel as the vaguely familiar bars and columns over a black starry background came into view through what he could only describe as a hole in the air. Harry tightened his grip on his wand as the exit rocketed ever closer only to find himself coming to a sudden and completely unexpected halt mere inches from it. Since he had been leaning forward slightly in anticipation the sudden stop, even though he hadn't physically been moving, threw him off, making him panic a bit and flail enough to stumble forward so his entrance in to the Dark Dimension was more of a stumble-flop that ended up with him lying face down on the ground and hidden in the fog.

And unfortunately not as completely unnoticed as he would have liked.

"Mageling! How did you get here?!"

"Crap…" Harry cursed before springing to his feet, his wand whipping around to find Goldar. The monster was standing across the thirty foot area with Tommy standing nearby. It appeared that Harry had shown up in the middle of a fight between the two, something that the unmorphed Ranger had been coming out on the worse side of based on his torn clothing, visible bruises, and panting, though not too bad off. Goldar himself wasn't exactly untouched, but Harry knew that it was more than likely that the scorch marks and pits on his armor along with the only partially healed damage to his face was probably the remnants of his own meeting with the Magi Ranger when Tommy was first kidnapped.

"Harry?" Tommy shouted, moving away from Goldar and toward his fellow Ranger in a stumbling gait, showing that he was perhaps a bit more injured than first glance suggested.

"Yeah, one rescue party at your service," Harry replied with a smirk, his wand never leaving Goldar even as Tommy neared him.

"Harry, he's got my morpher, and that's not all. We have to get that candle behind him!"

Harry raised an eyebrow in confusion, but nodded all the same. It wasn't really in Tommy's character to joke at a time like this, but a candle of all things? Still, questions were better saved for later when they weren't in eminent danger so he'd just have to take Tommy's word for it. "Alright then, beat Goldar, get back your morpher, get the candle he's guarding, and get out of here. Let's make it happen!"

Without another word and once more preventing Goldar from starting his pre-fight banter, Harry led off with a cutting curse, forcing the monster to dodge out of the way, opening the candle in question to Harry's view. It was a fairly normal looking green candle at first glance, if a bit on the tall side. It stood nearly a foot tall and several inches wide, the flame at the top burning merrily and letting out the occasional bright green mote of light that drifted upward instead of falling down like one would expect. After a few moments, the lights would vanish, though Harry got the impression that they weren't just odd sparks burning out.

Putting these candle-based thoughts aside, (and how odd was it that he was having them in the first place?) Harry tracked Goldar's movement with his wand, casting the same chains of devastating spells as earlier to keep the monster dodging and defending so as to better protect himself and his injured teammate. After several volleys, Harry took a chance and mixed a conjuration into his spell chain, creating a pair of pythons hidden amongst the fog. It slowed his onslaught a bit, but not enough for Goldar to do more than regain his feet. After a softly hissed command, more than hidden by Goldar's grunts and roars as the monster tried to avoid Harry's attack, the snakes slithered off toward Goldar, who quickly noticed their presence when they latched onto his legs and tripped him up. Once the monster was down, they began restraining him as quickly as they could.

"What? Where did these snakes come from?" Goldar roared as he struggled against the reptiles. Harry took his chance and snapped off a silent disarming charm, only to once again realize the folly in casting such a spell when one's opponent is holding a sword.

Harry hit the ground, pulling Tommy down with him and letting the sword clatter against the wall behind them. "You alright?" Harry asked, helping Tommy back up again and snapping off a few general healing spells now that he wasn't occupied with Goldar.

"I'll live," Tommy grunted, straightening slightly as Harry's magic did its work. "Did you see my morpher?"

Harry hummed slightly before casting a summoning charm and snagging the flying morpher out of the air and passing it back to Tommy. "Now, let's see about this candle, shall we?"

As the two Rangers stepped closer to the green candle, Goldar redoubled his struggling. "No! You shall not ruin my empress's plans! Not this time! PUTTIES, TO ME!"

With a flash of light, a half dozen putties appeared in the Dark Dimension, their high pitched mumbling noises echoing around. "Great," Harry sighed, turning to face the constructs with Tommy at his side. "As if we hadn't gotten enough of these guys already today…"

Before Tommy could respond, four of the six putties charged the two, one of them falling to a reducto from Harry on the way, before engaging them in close combat. Harry was forced to dodge away from Tommy to avoid running into him, pulling two of the three remaining combatants with him as he did. Sneering slightly as he got a bit of room, Harry lashed out at the nearest putty with a quick, off-handed punch, only for it to dodge the attack and for its comrade to land a kick to Harry's midsection, dropping him to the ground.

"Oh no," Harry growled as the two putties prepared to pummel him. "I'm not doing this again." With a quick heave and a pulse of Power, Harry launched himself off the ground and over the putties' heads. While the dimwitted clay constructs stared in what he could only assume to be surprise, Harry flipped through the air, his feet barely scraping the ceiling as he did, and landed behind them, lashing out with his elbows and smashing each putty to the ground where he finished them with another pair of blasting curses.

With a quick glance, Harry was able to see that Tommy had dealt with his opponent with his usual efficiency, but Goldar's voice drew his attention back to the green candle. "You may have freed your comrade, Mageling, but you will not have the green candle this day!" The sword arms of the two putties standing next to him explained how Goldar had gotten free from Harry's serpentine restraints, but the panic on Tommy's face at seeing Goldar with candle in hand only caused confusion. What was so bad about Goldar having that candle exactly?

Before Harry could voice this question, Goldar, and the candle, vanished in a flash of light, his last words and dark laughter echoing around the Dark Dimension. "Another time, Mageling and Green Ranger… for now…"

Tommy seemed to slump a bit in resignation before turning to face Harry. "Hey, thanks for the rescue, man. I owe you one."

Harry smiled, though still slightly confused at Tommy's reaction. "Not a problem, Tommy, glad to be of service. But what was the deal with the candle?"

Tommy just sighed. "I'll tell you once we get back to the others. I don't want to have to go over this more than once… You do have a way back, don't you?"

Harry just nodded and gestured to the still swirling portal, though its dark coloration made it a bit harder to notice in the Dark Dimension, which explained how Tommy had missed it in the first place. "Come on then," Harry said, leading his teammate toward their escape route. "Let's get you back home, Kimberly has been driving herself crazy."

-MR-

"The candle does WHAT!?"

Harry and Tommy's return had been met with a great deal of happiness from their fellow Rangers, especially Kimberly for obvious reasons. Once Billy had deactivated and collected his molecular decoders, the group teleported back to the Command Center both to hear Tommy's story and to wait for Rita's arrival in Angel Grove.

Tommy had then explained to them that, when he arrived in the Dark Dimension, Goldar and Rita had been there to meet him. As Tommy was still being restrained by putties, Goldar had stolen his morpher from him easily. Tommy's hand was then forced into a bowl of wax that Rita magically fashioned into a candle that was then lit. It was only when Rita left Goldar to toy with him that Tommy learned what the purpose of the candle was.

How Rita had used a magic ritual to link the wax to the first person who touched it.

How the candle that was fashioned would drain the Power from anyone linked to it.

How when the candle burned out, Tommy's Powers, and the Green Ranger, would be gone…

-MR-

AN: For those who are curious, a chandler is one who makes candles… See what I did there? *nudge nudge*

Thanks for reading and don't forget to review,

Tenstar12


	37. Chapter 37

Magi Ranger

By: Tenstar12

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or Power Rangers.

 **Chapter 37, in which Rita Reveals a Previously Unknown Propensity for Linguistics**

It had been a few minutes of frantic conversation and distress after the revelation of the consequences of Tommy getting captured. None of the Rangers quite seemed to want to believe it. Even Alpha seemed to be denying it as he brought forth various devices, tweaking the controls before waving them around the Green Ranger. It seemed as though none of the readings were to Alpha's liking though as he would just retrieve another device and repeat the process each time.

For his part, Tommy was taking all this with a stoic expression on his face. This may well be because he had had longer to come to terms with his situation. Kimberly was, predictably, standing as close as possible to Tommy's side, clutching onto his left arm as she worriedly watched the robot's activity. Trini had spent some time near Harry, ostensibly making sure he was alright, before moving to offer comfort to her overly stressed friend. Billy was grimly watching over Alpha's shoulder, occasionally offering a comment on Alpha's readings or a suggestion for how to proceed. Harry, Jason, and Zack were united in their grim reactions. The three were standing near one of the computer banks, watching the proceedings with neutral looks even as their minds raced.

Finally, Harry turned to the sole source of true calm in the room. "Zordon, have you ever seen anything like this before? I mean, is this something we might be able to stop?" Harry's words caught the attention of the other Rangers as well, each of them happy to leave their own worried thoughts in hopes that their mentor would have an answer.

The floating head hummed in thought for a moment. "I have not seen anything like this in person; however, I have heard tales of other such artifacts being created. In my youth, while studying under my own master in the ways of the Grid, I was told a tale of a dark sorcerer who rose to prominence through a ritual he created. This ritual used Power draining artifacts he crafted that were linked to the essence of another Grid user. In those cases, the very life essence of the one linked was drained alongside their Power, giving this dark sorcerer extended life as well as more Power."

Kimberly's face went white and she clutched Tommy's arm harder than she already had been. Harry wouldn't have been surprised if the Green Ranger had lost feeling in that hand at this point.

Zordon continued, apparently unaware of anything else as he sifted through his memories of long ago. "In this case however, I do not believe that Tommy is in that level of danger. Because each of you, with the exception of Harry, access the Grid's Power through the medium of your Power Coins, any candle linked to you would have to do so through the same medium, which should prevent the draining of your life force as a consequence. It is quite likely that this is the reason that Tommy's morpher was taken. Aside from preventing him from fighting back as effectively, his Power Coin was needed to properly link the enchanted wax to Tommy's connection to the Grid."

Zordon let out a sigh. "Unfortunately, I do not know of any way to stop the transference of Power without the candle itself."

Harry grit his teeth. "And I doubt that Rita would keep the candle anywhere we could get at it easily after we came so close in the Dark Dimension." The room was silent for the next several moments, save for the typical beeping noises from the computers and the humming of Zordon's projector.

"So, if Rita is draining Tommy's powers…" Jason said, pausing to take a breath, clearly struggling with the thought. "Does that mean that she's going to be morphing into the Green Ranger herself?"

Luckily for Jason's peace of mind, as well as that of the others, Zordon shook his head. "It is highly unlikely, Jason. In order for Rita to utilize the Green Power that way, she would have to obtain the coin as well as the Power. I designed the Mighty Morphin Power so that the coins are essential to utilizing the Power, it was only because Rita stole the Green Coin initially that she was able to utilize it in the first place. I would imagine that Rita merely hopes to deprive us of Tommy's help, and that of the Dragonzord."

"Or give us something else to worry about while she makes her big play." Tommy interjected, bringing everyone else to a stop. The Green Ranger had a look of resignation on his face, but his eyes were full of resolve. "It doesn't matter though. My Power doesn't matter. We have to focus on stopping Rita from destroying the city and on freeing all the people she has trapped."

"But Tommy," Kimberly said softly. "If you lose your Power, you won't be a Ranger anymore…"

Tommy shot his girlfriend a small smile before running his gaze around the room, meeting the eyes of everyone else as he spoke. "Yeah, the Green Ranger might be finished, but I've still got some fight left in me. How long will it be before my Power is gone?"

"According to the scanners," Alpha started. "And the results from the multi-phasic analyzer, the transdimensional contaminant detector, the handheld polymorphic resonance isolator, the-"

"Alpha," Harry cut the robot off. "The point, please?"

If Alpha could have blushed, the robot would have been bright red. As it was, Harry was convinced that the randomly blinking lights on his torso and the lights running across his visor were moving faster. "Ah… right. According to the readings, Tommy's Power will be fully drained in slightly less than 48 hours in his current form. If he were to get closer to the Green Candle or morph then I suspect that the rate could be multiplied many times over."

Tommy nodded grimly before meeting everyone's eyes again. "Then you'll have the Green Ranger fighting alongside you for one more battle."

Everyone was silent in the wake of Tommy's firm declaration. Finally, Zordon broke the silence, warmth in his voice. "And that, Tommy, is why you are suited to being a Power Ranger. Even though Rita had alternative reasons for selecting you to wield the Green Power Coin, I could not have selected a more appropriate candidate if I tried."

Tommy smiled, even as he ducked his head a bit in embarrassment. "Thanks, Zordon."

Just then, the Command Center's alarms went off.

"Ai yai yai yai yai!" Alpha chanted, speed-waddling over to one of the computer banks. "The proximity sensors have been triggered! Rita's palace is right over Angel Grove!"

Almost as one, Harry and the Rangers turned to face the Viewing Globe as it lit up from within. Moments later, the image cleared to reveal the flying form of Rita's palace hovering in place over the city.

"Why is she just floating there?" Jason asked, his face scrunched up in thought.

"Oh great," Zack groaned, rolling his eyes. "As if it wouldn't have been hard enough to kick her off our planet already, she's gonna be flying around everywhere too."

Then the image of Rita's palace began turning before it floated off toward what Harry thought were the older parts of the city.

"Where's she going now?" Trini asked.

Harry was just as confused as the others up until the moment when a red light began shining from a point rather high up the central tower, most likely where Rita's balcony was. Before any of the Rangers could comment, the light pulsed brightly and lanced outward from the palace and down toward the city, resulting in a plume of smoke and dust billowing up beyond the rooftops. Then, slowly, the palace rotated once more before lowering down through the billowing smoke, settling down to the ground in Angel Grove.

And then the image on the Viewing Globe flickered briefly before changing entirely, showing the quite unwelcome sight of Rita's sneering face.

"Rangers!" Rita drawled, smirking from within the Viewing Globe. "I know you're watching me, Rangers. I propose that we settle this once and for all. I will meet you in the town square of Angel Grove. Don't delay too long though, there's no telling what could happen to all the people of this city if you do."

With an evil cackle that sent a chill down Harry's spine, Rita's image vanished, once again replaced by the view of the cityscape of Angel Grove, now with the alien towers of Rita's palace sticking up amongst the buildings and the smoke from Rita's attack.

"Ai yai yai!" Alpha was panicking again. "Rita must have hijacked the feed to send her message. What are we going to do Zordon?! Rita's on Earth! Her Power will be much greater now that she's so close to the focal point!"

Zordon let out yet another sigh. "I'm afraid there is only one thing that we can do, Alpha."

"That's right!" Jason ground out through his clenched teeth while staring down at his white knuckled fists. "Rita has come down to our city and decided to challenge us. I say we meet her and beat her back again!"

"Yeah!" Zack took up Jason's angry enthusiasm. "We have to take her down, and this Cyclopsis robot of hers! She has our families and friends!"

Billy and the others merely nodded in agreement as Jason met each of their gazes individually. Finally, his eyes settled on Harry who still hadn't taken his eyes off the Viewing Globe.

He continued staring blankly for a few moments, his mind processing the entire situation until a squeeze of his hand brought him out of it. Harry blinked rapidly and looked toward Trini who held his hand tightly and met his gaze with steely determination. Harry nodded to her in thanks before meeting the eyes of his teammates one after another, finally stopping on Jason's angry eyes.

Harry held the Red Ranger's gaze for several seconds before giving him a slight nod. "I believe that you have a call to make, don't you Jason?"

Jason nodded in return before glancing up to Zordon. The wizard smiled, seeing his team of Rangers (plus one) ready to enter what may well be the final battle of this war against Rita. "So be it. Tommy, Alpha and I will monitor your Power levels from here. Try not to push yourself too far. There's no telling how long your Power will last with you in morph and so close to Rita's palace and the Green Candle by consequence." Zordon swept his gaze across the group before speaking again. "Remember Rangers, you must not drop your guard even once. Rita is much more powerful now that any other time you have faced her. Likewise, you must assume that any monsters or putties you face will be similarly stronger. Take no chances you do not have to. She has yet to call Cyclopsis into being, but I sense that she has further plans that we will have to be ready for. Despite this, I am very confident that you will prevail today. Be wary Rangers, and may the Power protect you."

Jason swept his gaze over the others as they moved to stand behind him spread out almost in formation. Even Harry joined them, the only difference being that he could feel the Grid's influencing him to do so, and took his place on the opposite side from Tommy at the outside edge of the group. "Let's save our city, guys," Jason said, determination hardening his voice. "IT'S MORPHIN' TIME!"

"MASTODON!" "PTERODACTYL!" "TRICERATOPS!" "SABER-TOOTH TIGER!" "TYRANNOSAURUS!" "DRAGONZORD!" "MAGI RANGER, POWER UP!"

-MR-

Rita had set her palace down on the grounds of Angel Grove's City Hall. The fact that she had had to remove the building in question was just a minor detail that was only really evident because of the smoldering bits of foundation exposed where Rita's palace didn't quite cover it all up. Just ahead of the relocated palace, was a square piece of real estate that had been preserved in the same state almost since the founding of the city.

Once in almost exactly the center of Angel Grove, before increased population and industrialization and the like had brought about expansion away from the coastline, the town square was dotted with old trees, statues, and gardens that were a tribute to the city's history. It was to this location that the seven Rangers teleported in columns of light, almost immediately dropping into fighting stances when they fully materialized, only to find nobody to meet them.

"Where's Rita?" Jason all but demanded, jerking his head this way and that as he searched for the space witch.

"She probably didn't expect us to show up so soon." Zack commented, straightening up slightly, though not really letting himself relax from his stance too much.

"More likely she has some kind of a trap planned for us." Kimberly said, looking about frantically for any sign of such a thing.

Then Rita's voice echoed across the small park. "Nonsense, Pink Ranger. Setting a trap for you would mean that I felt I needed such a thing to win."

Harry snorted. "Well, for supposedly not needing traps, you sure have liked setting them in the past."

"Awww," Rita crooned mockingly. "Is the Mageling still upset about his time in my palace? Did the Twin Man and I hurt your feelings?"

Harry's anger spiked and his magic reacted, lightning crackling around his tightly clenched fists. "Why don't you show yourself, Rita, and I'll show you some hurt feelings."

Rita's laughter echoed across the area before a bright flash heralded the witch's arrival around twenty feet away. "Happily, Mageling. If I knew you were so eager to meet your end, I wouldn't have wasted your precious time. I'm always happy to assist those with a death wish you see, especially when they have arrayed themselves against me."

"We're not the ones losing here today, Rita!" Jason shouted, stepping forward a few steps as the other four core Rangers stepped up behind him in a wedge formation while Tommy and Harry stood off to either side.

"Oh, very original, Red Ranger." Rita said with a smirk. "But to be honest, my fight isn't with you at the moment. I have something else planned for you."

Jason summoned his Power Sword in a flash of red light before brandishing it toward the witch. "If you think we're going to go along with anything you have planned, then you've got another thing coming!"

Rita seemed to consider this for a moment, though Harry could tell through her body language and the pure aura of smugness he could almost feel that she was just playing with them. "You do have a point, Red Ranger… I suppose I'll have to force you all into doing what I want then, won't I… Very well then." Rita brought her staff into a two-handed grip before jabbing it forward.

The Rangers tensed up as she began moving, but only Harry was able to detect the buildup of Power.

Only Harry noticed Rita's noticeably increase reserves of Power changing into a massive amount of Rita's bastardized version of Wizarding magic through the Elder Wand that was now pointing at his teammates.

Only Harry recognized the tell-tale sickly green glow of magic forming at the tip of the Elder Wand.

" _Avada Kedavra!_ "

For a split second, Harry's mind ground to a halt.

How had Rita learned the killing curse? Even while he was in her palace, he had never mentioned more than the slightest hint of the Unforgivables, and even that was only under a great amount of duress. It was highly unlikely that Rita had been able to break through his Occlumency to steal the knowledge directly from his mind. No doubt she would have pressured him more specifically on those spells if she had.

Then, as Harry's mind started up again in the next instant, he realized that there was no time for ponderings now. He had to act, or else his teammates would pay the price.

With a gesture of his left hand, Harry wandlessly transfigured the Earth in front of Jason into a concrete barrier that rose to stand in the way of Rita's spell. With his other hand, Harry summoned up the Magi Staff and used it to cast an angled banishing charm on the other six Rangers, throwing them backwards from the barrier just as the killing curse hit it and blasted it into gravel.

Rita's wicked laugher once more echoed around the area as Harry seethed and the other Rangers climbed to their feet again. "A most invigorating spell, Mageling, and quite powerful too. Even in my wildest dreams I never thought I would learn of a magic that could snuff out a life quite as effectively as your 'killing curse.' Marvelous…"

Harry's teeth were clenched so hard he was sure they were going to crack under the pressure. "How? I did everything I could to avoid teaching you anything worthwhile while you held me captive. So how did you manage to learn the killing curse?!"

Rita's smile only grew. "It was really you who made it possible Mageling, and I don't just mean because I wouldn't have even known of this type of magic if you hadn't shown up. I'm sure you remember when we had you convinced that we had your little girlfriend captive, yes?" Rita paused as if to allow Harry time to answer, even though Harry remained stoically silent as the other Rangers moved to gather behind him. They recognized that they were out of their field of expertise at this point.

Rita continued as if Harry had spoken though, her amusement clear. "Well it only took the one bit of information you let slip before your rescue party arrived to set me on the right path. 'The Unforgivables…' Yes, a wonderful name for a set of wonderful spells, though I think you can understand why the killing curse is my favorite. The sheer power in such a magic will make me the strongest being in the universe! I was able to learn of them all through a simple ritual focused on the wand I took from your inept hands that allowed me a look into the past of those who held it. I know every spell ever cast through this wand now, and that includes all three of the 'Unforgivable Curses.' I just needed your little hint to point me in the right direction."

Harry felt a hand grip his left arm and turned to see Trini. "Harry?" she asked in concern. "What's she talking about?"

Harry growled lightly. "Rita made me think that they had captured you too just before Tommy and Kimberly busted me out. I mentioned the Unforgivables by their classification before we were distracted by the initial explosion they caused. I never thought she'd be able to get anything from that though…"

Kimberly gasped. "That's what you meant, isn't it? When you said you had screwed up? I completely forgot about that after the problems we had with our escape."

Rita cut in at that point, still smirking at the Rangers. "Yes, Harry gave me all I needed to learn about his brand of magic without his help, and what a wonderful gift it was."

Rita began cackling again as Jason came up on Harry's other side and rested a hand on his shoulder. "Harry," he said quietly. "Can you beat her? I mean, now that she knows your magic…"

Harry shook his head, forcing himself to relax and think things through. "I think so… Just because she knows the spells and presumably how to cast them, doesn't mean she can use them to their potential. I spent a few years training against the very spells she is most likely to use, so I have an advantage there. Not to mention the fact that her scepter makes casting anything too complex very time consuming and difficult. It's her increased Grid Power that worries me, but I can't do anything but try."

Jason nodded before raising his voice. "Alright, Rangers. Let's take her down!"

"I think not, Rangers!" Rita screeched, cutting their eminent charge short as she thrust her staff upwards, releasing bolts of lightning from it that arced to the top of her palace. The very tip of the topmost spire began to glow before, with a flash of light, the massive, robotic form of Cyclopsis appeared, looming over the Rangers while the witch laughed again.

"COME AND GET ME RANGERS!" Goldar's voice echoed from the massive machine as its eyes lit up and it began moving off into the city, shaking the ground with each step. "The Mageling has an appointment with my Empress, but if you don't stop me, I'll destroy the city!"

Harry cursed under his breath. "He's right. You guys have to call the Zords and go after Goldar and Cyclopsis. I'll take care of Rita and join you as soon as I can."

"Harry…" Trini spoke up from his side, once more tightening her grip on his arm. "Are you sure?"

Harry shot her an unseen smile and drew her into a brief, one armed hug. "I'll be fine, Trini. Have faith in me and in the Power and there's nothing we can't accomplish."

Zack gave a snort. "Wow, Harry, way to channel Zordon there."

Harry rolled his eyes even as Jason took charge once again, the other core Rangers moving into formation again and mimicking his movements. "Alright Rangers, let's go take care of Cyclopsis! WE NEED DINOZORD POWER, NOW!"

As the others leapt/teleported away to meet their Zords, Harry shot a glance at Tommy. "You better get going," he said, seeing his teammate/teacher seem hesitant to leave him with Rita. "They're going to need your help and that of the Dragonzord."

Tommy hesitated a bit longer, but eventually nodded. "Just be careful, Harry. I don't trust her."

Harry snorted, even as he kept one eye on the still smirking Rita. She seemed rather prepared to wait, but he didn't know how long that would last. "And you think I do? Still, I have a few tricks she hasn't seen yet. It's never a good idea to go into a battle with a new spell and expect to beat someone who has already been using it for years."

Tommy nodded again. "Alright, good luck, man," and then he was gone in a teleport. Moments later, Harry heard the familiar summoning tune as Tommy called his own Zord into play.

"Finally…" Rita drawled, idly buffing the nails of her off hand on her robe/dress. "Alone at last… I've been looking forward to this battle, Mageling. Ever since we met atop the building when I first learned of the potential behind your spells. This shall be a battle like none before."

Harry rolled his eyes. Rita had a point. This battle could well be one of the most difficult he had ever been in. It was certainly not a time to hold back. "Then let's stop yapping and get to it!" Without another word, Harry snapped off a quick blasting curse that he followed with a stunner.

Rita almost negligently sidestepped the two spells, almost seeming to blur with how fast she moved, before intricately moving her staff around to mimic wand movements. This time, Harry was sure she was blurring, but didn't have much time to dwell on it before Rita called out her spell. " _Bombarda Maxima_!"

Harry, with an equally negligent reaction, casually swept Rita's overcharged exploding curse to one side, sending it harmlessly into the air with the ease of long practice. He then returned fire with a short string of cutters topped with a body bind that splashed against a hastily erected shield of Power from Rita's ring focuses on her off hand.

The battle continued like this for several minutes. Rita with her strangely blurred and rapid staff movement and equally speedy dodging or powerful shields powered by Grid Magic against Harry with his precise wand movements and expertise with the occasional dodge, roll, or flip to avoid some of Rita's better aimed spells.

"So," Harry almost casually asked as he ducked under several nasty curses. "Are you about ready to stop with the warm up yet?" Harry felt he had gotten a grip on the witch's tactics. It appeared that she had done something to increase her speed to compensate for the cumbersome wand/staff movements necessary for her to use Wizarding magic. Whether or not Harry could cancel whatever spellwork she had done was still unknown, but it might be worth finding out. The trick would be to do so and then capitalize on the weakness before Rita reverted to using Grid Magic, where she held the decided advantage. It was really only Rita's own ego leading to her believing she could beat Harry at his own brand of magic that gave him this level of confidence.

Rita scoffed as she shielded several spells Harry sent her way in return. "What do you mean 'warm up,' Mageling? You don't stand a chance against me, especially not while I control the unbeatable Elder Wand!"

Case and point…

Harry rolled his eyes again. "You know, Rita. Many before you have thought exactly the same thing, and yet you would know better than most how many hands that wand has passed through. Whether the owner lost through battle or through treachery, just owning it doesn't ensure victory. For example…" Harry dodged to one side, avoid yet another volley of spells, before tapping his staff on the ground and releasing a pulse of magic.

Almost immediately, the ground between the two magic users rippled as if it was water before a section of it tore itself out of the ground, shifting form as it went into a ten foot tall green and brown lion. The transfigured and animated beast pounced at Rita, forcing the witch to blur to the side to avoid it, only to nearly get caught by a thirty foot long snake transfigured from a long row of hedges.

"You see, Rita," Harry continued even as he magically merged a few statues together before transfiguring the resulting chunk of stone into a gigantic badger. "While I may have been doing everything I could to avoid teaching you too much of use, and I'm sure you can't really blame me for that, there was still a point to it all."

Rita tried to levitate herself into the air, only for Harry to summon up a massive burst of wind. The force of nature buffeted the witch and knocked her back to the ground where she was forced to wrap herself in a dome shield that was quickly set upon by the three transfigured beasts.

"You have to start small if you want to cast anything really impressive. These things take time." Harry was almost enjoying his lecture/rant as he transfigured a portion of the nearby gardens into a colorful raven and set it flying over Rita's shield to prevent her from taking to the air again. "You chose the quick path, a shortcut, and that will be your downfall."

Harry twisted in place, vanishing with a crack only to reappear within Rita's dome shield. With a grunt, Harry thrust his staff forward into Rita's back, delivering a strong physical blow simultaneously with a Grid powered cancellation spell. The witch flew forward, caught off guard as her shield dropped with her loss of concentration. Harry's transfigured beasts formed up behind him, each of them pacing the Ranger as he walked up to Rita.

When the witch stumbled back to her feet, her speed enhancement spell broken, Harry sent a blasting curse at her, forcing her to shield with her off hand focuses. When his spell shattered her hastily erected protection, Harry performed a switching spell, swapping the focus rings on her off hand with empty air.

As Harry drew nearer, he could see Rita begin to panic, even as she drew up and converted even more Power to Wizarding magic. "Your problem, Rita, is that you believe that you cannot be beaten with this new magic at your disposal. Magic which you only just learned and that I've studied for the last eight years of my life."

" _Imperio_!" Rita had given up on the complex wand movements for the moment. Especially now that they would take her far too long without her speed enchantment. No, far better to stick with the 'unblockable' spells that only required the right mental state and power to cast.

Harry just kept on walking, letting the spell hit and then throwing off the effects with the ease of one who has done so many times in the past and against far better users of the spell than she. As he got closer, Rita took too big of a step back, tripping over her robes and dropping to the ground again.

"On top of that, if you've looked into the past of the Elder Wand," Harry mused aloud as he walked. "Then you must know of the legend of the Deathly Hallows and what it means for one person to collect them all."

" _Crucio!_ " Rita incanted, letting loose the bright red Cruciatus curse that Harry merely intercepted with a conjured stone slab before banishing the shards back at the witch, though there was admittedly little effect to be had.

"You know that the one who collects all the Hallows becomes known as the Master of Death. Now, in truth there is little to that title, despite what some may believe, but one thing that does come with it is total and unending dominion over all artifacts of Death."

" _Avada Kedavra!_ " Rita near screamed, continuing to try and scoot backwards on the ground as the Magi Ranger drew ever closer. For his part, Harry could tell what she was going to try to cast from the first syllable, meaning he had plenty of time to conjure up another stone slab. This one was practically in Rita's face so the witch was showered with the shards of stone without any further input from him.

That spell really was impractically long to cast, especially when one's opponent was already expecting it and prepared for such.

Harry used the distraction of the destruction of this last barrier to his advantage though, apparating silently while Rita was still reeling from the bombardment of stone shards and reappearing just behind her. "I am the Master of Death, Rita Repulsa." Harry said in his darkest tone, using magic to amplify his voice as the witch twisted to face him from the ground, tangling her legs up in her robes in the process. "I am the Master of the Elder Wand, and I've come for what's mine."

Rita tried to bring her staff around to face Harry, but he knocked it away with a swift swing of the Magi Staff. "Return the Elder Wand to me now, Rita, or I think you'll find that you won't like the consequences."

Rita's eyes were wider than the Magi Ranger had ever seen them as he loomed over her. The presence of his transfigured animals behind her probably didn't help her nerves at all. Not that Harry was at all concerned about that.

If Harry hadn't been so focused on Rita, he might have noticed the slender figure charging at him from the side. As it was, Scorpina was able to drop kick him solidly, knocking him away from Rita with a ridiculous amount of ease. Moments later, her boomerang shaped sword lashed out, beheading each of his transfigured allies and breaking the spells holding them together before she pulled Rita to her feet.

"Empress," Scorpina said quickly, keeping one eye on the recovering Magi Ranger. "Come Empress, we must return to the palace. Goldar can take care of the Rangers, but you must recover."

Rita glared at Harry even as the Magi Ranger kicked back up to his feet. "NO!" Harry shouted, letting loose with a flurry of destructive spells even as he cursed himself for losing his awareness.

Rita once again shielded against the spells, a much more solid shield that held against Harry's assault, even as her eyes shone with hatred. "Perhaps you are right, Scorpina…" Rita growled, her gaze never leaving Harry even as the Magi Ranger's barrage increased in intensity, now joined by Levin Bolts from his off hand.

Harry could only watch as Rita straightened up and adjusted her robes around herself. He knew that his momentum had been lost with Scorpina's arrival, but it was a hard pill to swallow. He had been so close!

Finishing with her self-adjustments, Rita returned her full gaze to Harry. "Know this, Mageling, you may have won this battle, but you and the rest of those pathetic Power Brats will not win the war. You cannot hope to stand up to the might of Cyclopsis!"

Harry let his Levin Bolt die off even as he stopped the furious casting with his staff, leveling an unseen glare of his own at Rita. Sometimes, wearing a helmet really got in the way of expressing oneself. "You've said that many times before, Rita, but we're still here."

Rita didn't respond verbally. Instead, lifting her staff up slightly before bringing it down with a magically amplified crack and a flash of light. When the light faded, the two evil women were gone once again.

Harry sighed and turned his attention toward Angel Grove proper. He could feel the slightest of tremors in the ground which told him the giant robot battle was still going on. With Rita driven off, even though Harry failed to regain the Elder Wand in this his best chance so far to do so, all the Magi Ranger was left to do was help his teammates with Goldar and Cyclopsis.

After one more glance toward the nearby hulk of Rita's palace, from which Harry was sure the space witch was watching him, Harry teleported away.

-MR-

When he rematerialized atop one of the taller buildings in downtown Angel Grove, he immediately noticed the massive form of the MegaDragonzord. This Zord combination was the same one Harry had first seen when the Rangers formed the Ultrazord against the Samurai Fan Man. While it was rather bulky with the vertically split Dragonzord resting as it was along the Megazord's shoulders, the Zord moved surprisingly quickly, dodging around the strikes made by Cyclopsis's stubby looking arms.

Goldar had apparently come to the same conclusion as Cyclopsis backed up several steps before crossing its arms over its chest and then flinging them to either side. On either side of its chest, two panels rose up to reveal multiple missiles that were then launched toward the Rangers. From within the smoke cloud that resulted from multiple explosions, a bright light flashed before lancing out toward Cyclopsis as the MegaDragonzord returned fire.

When the smoke cleared, there was little damage to be seen on either machine.

"Harry?" Tommy's voice came from behind him. Harry spun, his staff glowing briefly until he spotted the Green Ranger. "Woah, man," Tommy said, raising his hands up in surrender. "It's just me."

Harry sighed and let the glow of Power die off. "Sorry, I'm a bit on edge… Rita got away. I nearly had her when Scorpina got in the way…"

Harry could almost feel Tommy's grimace. "Hey, no worries man. Rita's slippery, but we'll get her eventually." Further conversation was cut off as the MegaDragonzord landed a thunderous blow against Cyclopsis and sent the War Zord reeling backwards.

Then Jason's voice echoed across their communicators. "I call upon the power of Titanus and the Ultrazord!"

Harry felt the vibrations echoing up through the building below him as Titanus rolled through the city on its treads. He watched as Jason called for the transformation sequence and the MegaDragonzord jumped on board Titanus.

"LOCK ON AND FIRE!"

Harry watched as the multitude of destructive blasts of every color burst forth from the Ultrazord and peppered Cyclopsis until it fell back to the ground and exploded.

Harry let himself smile beneath his helmet. He may not have been able to take out Rita himself, but at least Cyclopsis had been dealt with, and Zordon had been quite certain that the War Zord was a much greater threat. He had felt a pulse of Power just before Cyclopsis exploded, which was most likely Goldar teleporting out, but he wasn't worried about that at the moment.

"DO YOU REALLY THINK IT WOULD BE THAT EASY, RANGERS?"

The earth began shaking once again as Rita's voice echoed across the area. Tommy and Harry began looking around even as MegaDragonzord jumped free of Titanus and moved to stand near their building.

Harry felt a pulse of Power and turned toward it, spotting the figures of Rita, Goldar, and Scorpina on a building a few blocks away. "Over there!" He shouted, pointing his teammates in the right direction as he started gathering up Power again.

Now that she had their attention, Rita continued. "DID YOU REALLY THINK THAT I WOULDN'T HAVE A BACKUP PLAN IN PLACE? THAT I DIDN'T EXPECT FOR YOU TO FIND A WAY TO DEFEAT CYCLOPSIS?" Rita's laughter grew in volume before she raised her staff up over her head and the red gem mounted on it began to shine with Power. "I CALL UPON THE POWER OF LOKAR! COME TO ME NOW AND FULFILL THE WISHES OF YOUR SUMMONER!"

Just as the last time Lokar was summoned by Rita, the sky darkened until it resembled a starless night. Then, with a flash of lightning the blue skinned and spiky haired face of Lokar appeared in the sky. The dimensionally trapped dark wizard glared heatedly down at the Rangers, though Harry could almost feel the extra focus placed on him.

"AND NOW LOKAR," Rita called out. "I COMMAND YOU TO BRING BACK CYCLOPSIS, GREATER THAN EVER BEFORE! COMBINE YOUR POWER WITH THAT OF CYCLOPSIS AND BRING ME VICTORY IN BATTLE!"

Lokar's eyes immediately began to glow as more lightning lanced through the sky around him. Then, several lights burst into view coming from the ground and rising into the air. When they got high enough, Harry was able to make out pieces of metal of varying sizes that clustered together just beneath Lokar. The last piece was the largely intact head of Cyclopsis, its eyes lighting up from within as Lokar channeled his Power into the remains of the War Zord.

With a final flash of light that was blinding in its intensity, Lokar vanished and Cyclopsis was reformed.

The War Zord once more standing strong before the Rangers was largely the same. The first real difference to be seen was that the single horn/spike atop its head was now three with the two new ones jutting off at an angle from either side. Aside from that, it was now equipped with two long blades, one extending from the back of each hand, more than making up for the lack of reach it had before.

With another brief flash of light, Goldar vanished from Rita's side once again and Cyclopsis took a fighting stance mere moments later. "AND NOW RANGERS," Goldar's voice came from his War Zord. "YOU ARE ALL DOOMED!"

Harry felt a sense of dread hit him and brought his communicator up. "Jason! Ultrazord! NOW!"

"Yeah… right," Jason responded, hesitant at first but then firmer. "Titanus, form the Ultrazord, now!"

"OH NO YOU DON'T, RANGERS!" Rita screeched, bringing Harry's attention back to her just as her jabbed her scepter toward Titanus just as the Zord's neck shifted lower to allow access to the MegaDragonzord. Before Harry could react, a blast of incredible Power shot from Rita's scepter and struck the ground just in front of the massive Zord, causing the earth beneath it to begin to shake.

"No!" Jason shouted amidst similar cries of denial and disbelief from the other core Rangers within the MegaDragonzord as Titanus began roaring in a manner that was all too organic for a robot in Harry's opinion.

Then Titanus began to sink as the ground below it collapsed into a sinkhole. Within seconds, all that was visible of Titanus was its head and the top third of its neck. The MegaDragonzord moved as close as it could, kneeling down at the edge of the sinkhole and grabbing at Titanus, trying to pull the Zord free from Rita's trap, but to no avail.

Mere moments later, Titanus was gone.

"AND NOW, RANGERS," Goldar announced. "THE BATTLE CAN TRULY BEGIN!"

But without the use of Ultrazord and with Cyclopsis more powerful than before, Harry knew things had just gotten much more difficult.

-MR-

Thanks for reading and don't forget to review,

Tenstar12


	38. Chapter 38

Magi Ranger

By: Tenstar12

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or Power Rangers.

 **Chapter 38, or FIGHT FAIL!**

The seconds stretched on into minutes as the two massive machines stared each other down.

On one side, there was the MegaDragonzord. Piloted by the Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers to great success many times since they gained the Power, it was a tried and true weapon that was only made even more powerful with the addition of the Dragonzord's Power. It was hard to imagine anything able to stand up against such an awesome force.

On the other side was Cyclopsis. By all accounts, this was a dangerous enemy to fight, more so than anything they had faced so far certainly. It was a massive engine of destruction that had been used by Rita and piloted by Goldar many times in the past and had only been made more powerful with the addition of Lokar's Power upon its reconstruction.

The battle was only going to get harder from here.

And then time seemed to return to normal again as Jason spoke. "Alright Rangers," he half-shouted. "We beat this guy one, we can do it again! Let's let him have it!"

"RIGHT!" The others within the MegaDragonzord chanted. Harry just shot a look to Tommy where he stood next to him. The Green Ranger seemed just as caught up in the moment as the others. Harry could only assume it was the Grid's influence.

This could be both a good and bad thing to Harry's mind. It would keep his friends focused on the battle, but it might keep them a bit too focused, keeping them involved in the battle when retreating and regrouping might be better. While this was only a theory on Harry's part, he was never happier for his somewhat weaker connection to the grid.

It was something that Harry had had in the back of his mind ever since he first negotiated with the Grid for the Magi Ranger Power. The Grid was little more than an audience/enabler for the entire conflict that ravaged this universe, it had all but admitted as much. This didn't seem to bother Zordon too much, but seeing the other ways the Grid had influenced his teammates, and even himself on a few occasions, the entire situation made Harry uneasy. No matter how you looked at it, the Grid was influencing those that used its Power for its own entertainment.

Harry was snapped out of his thoughts by the movement of the two Zords as they charged forward. The MegaDragonzord was a bit slower than other Zord configurations Harry had seen his teammates use, most likely because of the extra weight and bulk from all of their Zords combined as they were. In comparison, Cyclopsis was much more slender and even a bit shorter, and moved much, much faster. The result of their different speeds was that they met much closer to the MegaDragonzord's starting position and that Cyclopsis had more momentum.

Moving like the powerful giant it was, the MegaDragonzord lumbered forward and led with a right hook. Cyclopsis moved to meet the MegaDragonzord and almost casually deflected the strong blow with its left hand before delivering a backhanded slash with the blade on its right, landing the hit on the Zord's torso under its arm. Harry heard the Rangers cry out in panic over the communicator as their Zord reeled back a few steps accompanied by sparks, only for their cries to redouble when Cyclopsis followed up with a rapid-fire series of slashes. Each blow was delivered around the Zord's flailing attempts to defend itself, one strike knocking an arm aside while the other followed through the new opening to hit the torso directly.

The entire time, Jason and the others were wrestling with their controls, trying to find a way to mount a counterattack.

"Jason, we're losing structural integrity on both arms!"

"Our power levels are dropping fast! I don't know how much more we can take!"

"He's too fast!"

Harry growled before gathering his Power and raising his arm into the air. "I call upon the Silver Owl Zord, HEDWIG!"

With the now familiar flash of purple light and avian screech, Hedwig appeared in the air above Angel Grove and immediately dove down toward the battle. Mere moments before she reached Cyclopsis though, the Zord ducked backwards and to one side, almost negligently dodging Hedwig's stoop and forcing the Owl to pull up sharply to avoid a rather violent meeting with the ground.

"AH!" Goldar said, a suspiciously satisfied tone to his voice. "SO IT SEEMS THE MAGLEING HAS FINALLY DECIDED TO JOIN THE PARTY, EH?"

By this point, Hedwig had bled off her extra speed and was now hovering in midair some distance behind Cyclopsis with the MegaDragonzord standing an equal distance in front of it. Harry narrowed his eyes for a moment before nodding firmly and turning to Tommy. "Take care of yourself, Tommy. I'm going to join in on the fun."

"Alright, Harry," the Green Ranger said with a nod of his own. "Be careful. Goldar is sounding way too smug to not have a plan…"

Silently, Harry agreed, but he said nothing, merely twisting in place, vanishing, and reappearing upon Hedwig's head with a near silent pop.

- _Are you ready, Harry/Wizard?_ \- Hedwig asked.

"As always, Hedwig. Let's do this." As Harry spun his staff to gather the necessary Power for their fusion, he nearly missed Cyclopsis turning sideways, pointing one of its arm blades at them and the other at the MegaDragonzord.

"I THINK NOT! TAKE THIS!" Goldar roared as Cyclopsis's blades lit up with an internal light before letting loose bolts of electricity from each one that lanced toward their targets. Hedwig was forced to fire up her rocket boosters, launching them straight up into the air in order to dodge the attack and simultaneously forcing Harry to crouch down and apply a light sticking charm to his feet to avoid falling.

"Dammit…" Harry growled, watching from above as Cyclopsis began its assault on the MegaDragonzord again. Harry's teammates had been unable to dodge the lightning attack from the War Zord and so were one more left open for Cyclopsis's superior speed to bring it up to them and resume the blistering barrage of sword strikes. "Come on, Hedwig," Harry finally said. "We have to pull Goldar off of them before he demolishes the MegaDragonzord."

- _Right away, Harry/Wizard. Hold on tight!_ \- With that, Hedwig fired her rockets again, launching them slightly higher into the air before she angled her wings to propel them forward and then folded them entirely to enter into another dive.

For Harry, for an instant, he was back at Hogwarts, playing Quidditch and in a dive for the snitch. The rush of adrenaline he got from diving from such a height at such a speed was something he really hadn't experienced for a very long time. Flying, really flying, was something he missed dearly. And then, all at once, Harry was back in the present, he and Hedwig drawing closer and closer to Cyclopsis's unprotected back as the War Zord landed a few more blows on the MegaDragonzord.

Once again, just before they would have landed their attack, Cyclopsis ducked to one side, forcing Hedwig to flare her wings and fire her rockets in order to avoid crashing into their teammates. This time, however, Goldar had something else in store for them.

The first clue Harry got that something was very wrong was when their controlled, if rather abrupt, change of direction changed into a spinning tumble through the air signaled by the sound of wrenching metal on metal. Hedwig's mental cry of pain and panic followed up by an instinctual fear was Harry's only warning before he and his familiar/Zord crashed into the MegaDragonzord, sending both machines to the ground in a heap.

Luckily for Harry, Hedwig had crashed into the MegaDragonzord mostly belly-to-belly, so Harry wasn't crushed by the contact. Unluckily, Hedwig's now severed right wing landed a short distance away, crashing into a building before falling to street level, showing Harry just what had happened.

"HEDWIG!" Harry shouted, reaching through their familiar bond frantically, searching for any sign from the owl.

- _I… am… functioning, Harry/Wizard._ \- the answer came several seconds later than the wizard might have liked, but he still released a breath of relief when it did. - _There is… no pain… it is a most curious sensation. However I do not believe I will be able to fly anymore…_ -

Harry nearly rolled his eyes at Hedwig's matter-of-fact answer. "Can we still fuse? Do you think we can still form Warrior Mode?" it wasn't like they had much else in the way of options at this point.

"More to the point," Jason said over the communicator. "Can you get off of us? Goldar is still on the attack!"

Harry turned his head, having to pivot in place at the waist because of his still active sticking charm, and caught sight of Cyclopsis standing several Zord-paces away. Goldar's laugh then echoed out across the area. "AH, MAGELING… IT LOOKS LIKE I HAVE YOU RIGHT WHERE I WANT YOU NOW!"

The two missile pods rose from Cyclopsis's chest once more, revealing a fresh barrage of missiles and making Harry's eyes widen in panic. "GOODBYE, MAGELING!"

Harry had mere moments to act as the first of the barrage launched. First things first, he cancelled the sticking charm, apparating quickly to the back of Hedwig's head so he could maintain an easier footing. Then, he reached deep within himself, grabbing onto his available reservoir of Power and funneling it into his staff and pulling up as much of his Magic as he could and channeling it through his off hand.

With a shout of exertion, Harry thrust his staff forward and unleashed a storm of lightning at the oncoming explosives. From his staff, Harry used his Power to create a simple lightning spell, one of the easiest offensive spells offered by Grid Magic and the only one he had really mastered to this point, having spent more time on his general Grid control exercises and combining Grid Magic with his own. From his off hand, Harry unleashed a torrent of Levin Bolts, the arcing energy branching out as it went and meeting several of the missiles in midair, setting them off at a safe distance.

Yet the barrage continued.

When his available Power ran out, Harry was forced to dismiss the Magi Staff, bringing up more of his own Magic and sending forth a torrent of lightning from his right hand as well, simultaneously starting up his Battle Rhythm technique to help sustain the spells. His hands were lost in a shower of sparks and smoke as the Levin Bolts did as much damage to Harry's suit as they were to Cyclopsis's missiles, but there was little Harry could do but keep it up as long as the explosions persisted.

After another ten seconds that seemed much longer, Harry had completely lost sight of Cyclopsis in the smokescreen caused by the explosions.

Finally, Harry heard Goldar let out an angry shout accompanied by a much dimmed flash of light and shaking ground caused by heavy steps and he let his spells die off. Only then did the exhaustion hit him and Harry dropped to his knees there upon his Zord.

"Holy… Crap…" Harry panted, staring down at his gloves, blackened by scorch marks from the Levin Bolts. He hadn't felt this drained in months… at least since the Terror Toad attack when he had had to fight the monster, Goldar, and a group of putties alone.

As the smoke began to clear, Harry glanced up and caught sight of Cyclopsis. The Zord was more or less undamaged, though there were several scorched trails of blackened metal where the Levin Bolts had raked their way across the surface. It was most likely these bolts that had brought about Goldar's reaction, though based on the general lack of damage, it was probably more from surprise than anything else.

"ONCE AGAIN, MAGELING, YOU HAVE PROVEN HOW MUCH OF AN ANNOYANCE YOU CAN BE." Goldar growled as Cyclopsis took a few steps forward through the dissipating smoke, returning to its previous position. "BUT IT APPEARS THAT YOU'RE ON YOUR LAST LEGS NOW."

Technically, this wasn't true. While Harry was feeling rather exhausted, it was only from channeling so much wandless magic in so short a time. While the distinction made little real difference, Harry would be back on his feet, so to speak, in a few minutes.

It was a few minutes that he very much doubted Goldar would give him.

"Hang on, Harry!" Tommy's voice caught his attention as the Green Ranger landed next to him on Hedwig's back. "I've got ya, man." The Green Ranger then lifted him up, draping one of Harry's arms over his shoulders and carried him into a two-person leap that allowed them to clear the downed Zords and land in the streets.

As soon as they were out of the way, the MegaDragonzord began moving again. Without having to fear dislodging the Magi Ranger, the others piloted their Zord into moving the damaged Hedwig off to one side, setting her somewhat gently (or as gently as could be managed by a giant robot) on her talons before clambering back up to its feet. Hedwig stood, looking somewhat unsteady. Her head spun toward her severed wing lying on the ground to the joint where it had been removed and then to Cyclopsis before beginning the cycle all over again.

"Harry," Jason called over the communicators again. "Can you still fuse with Hedwig? We could really use some help here."

Harry let out a growl as his panting slowed. "I could if Goldar would give me a chance. Unfortunately it seems like that's not gonna happen. Even if I could get back over to her, Goldar would either blast us again, or lay into you guys before we could do anything to help."

"Dammit!" Jason cursed, then he continued a moment later. "Alright Harry, you and Tommy should take cover. We're gonna give this guy everything we can while we still have something to give."

"But Jason," Billy interjected. "Our power levels are already critically low after our initial battle with Cyclopsis and Goldar's renewed attacks. Using too much Power at once-"

"I know it's risky, Billy." Jason cut the brainy Ranger off. "But we really don't have a lot of choice here. We're just too slow against Cyclopsis now and none of our other Zord combos stood a chance even before he got powered up by Lokar."

"Jason's right." Zack said, his usual good humor gone from his voice, not that that was surprising given the situation. "I say we hit him hard and fast while we still can!"

A few moments later, and the other Rangers had voiced their agreement. Then, Hedwig's voice rang through Harry's mind. - _I shall add what Power I have to your teammates' attack too, Harry/Wizard. There is little else I can do as I am now._ -

Harry nodded, sending a mental caress to his familiar. "Guys, Hedwig says she'll give what she can to help out."

"Good," Jason's reply was rather grim. "I have a feeling we'll need all we can get…"

Harry and Tommy exchanged a glance at Jason's tone, but shrugged it off moments later. With a mutual nod (freaking Grid guidance!) the two Rangers leapt up into the air, Tommy still supporting Harry, and landed atop a building. From there, they jumped yet again, landing on another one another few blocks away before turning back to watch the fireworks.

"We're clear, Jason," Tommy called out. "Go for it!"

Hedwig had hopped as close as she could to the MegaDragonzord's side and extended her remaining wing until it made contact. Then, the dome atop her head lit up with an internal light that traveled down her wing and into the MegaDragonzord. Meanwhile, the Rangers had started up the MegaDragonzord's finisher sequence and the machine's remaining power was charged into the Dragonzord addition, focusing, oddly enough, in what had once been the Dragonzord's knees and were now hanging down on either side of the Megazord's shoulders.

Finally, as the glowing light became blinding, the Megazord's arms jerked out to each side, clanging into the glowing emitters which then released their energy at an angle that caused the two beams to connect a short distance in front of the MegaDragonzord. The Power gathered there for a few moments, forming into a large orb of energy that, somehow, had what looked like a stylized "Z" in the middle of it. Mere moments later, with another gesture from the Zord and presumably from the Rangers inside it, the orb of destruction flew forward and slammed into Cyclopsis, which had remained unmoving the entire time.

This should have really been their first clue that things had gone wrong.

Cyclopsis was almost immediately hidden from sight by the explosion and resulting smoke cloud caused by the MegaDragonzord's attack. The Zord in question stood tall, though Hedwig appeared to be slumped slightly from lack of energy.

The seconds seemed to take forever as the smoke billowed up through the sky over the deserted Angel Grove, hiding the result of the Rangers' attack. Somehow, Harry had the feeling that the battle wasn't quite over yet.

This thought proved prophetic as a gust of wind accelerated the dispersal of the smoke, revealing Cyclopsis standing tall and only slightly more scorched than it had been after Harry's Levin Bolts.

"A VALLIANT EFFORT, POWER RANGERS…" Goldar's voice was as smug as Harry had ever heard it and it made his heart drop even as the MegaDragonzord took a step back. "BUT NOW IT'S MY TURN!"

With a roar from Goldar, Cyclopsis's arms came up once again and the blades began glowing. Before anyone could react, arcs of lightning once more lanced forth. One of the bolts was heading toward the Rangers' Zords…

And the other was heading for Harry and Tommy.

Before the two Rangers had a chance to blink, they found themselves wrapped in lightning, sparks showering off their suits like a waterfall even as pain, dulled though it was by those same suits, lit up their nervous systems like never before.

Harry screamed.

Tommy screamed.

There was little else they could do until they blacked out.

-MR-

Coming back to consciousness was an ordeal the likes of which Harry hadn't felt since his days back at Hogwarts. Back in first year… and second year… third year… heck, every year that he had some big end-of-year challenge to overcome that left him physically and magically exhausted… So every year he was at Hogwarts.

He really should have looked into alternate education…

In any case, fighting his way back to consciousness, Harry noticed three things immediately. One, he was outside. Two, he was out of morph. And three, he appeared to be alone. Opening his eyes to find the darkening blue sky showing that the day was waning, Harry found himself struggling to even sit up. He wasn't restrained or anything, or at least not by anything he could feel, he was just that exhausted.

And he hurt. Oh Merlin did he hurt…

Every nerve cluster in his body was protesting at once, leaving Harry feeling like little more than a solid ache. Finally, he was able to force himself into a sitting position and looked around to find himself back in Angel Grove Park. More specifically, he was in the open area in front of the stage set up for the Power Rangers Day festival.

As he looked around, his attention was caught by a groan behind him. His first instinct was to spin quickly, but his body was still protesting such movement so his eventual, scooting turn around onto his stomach was much slower than he might have liked.

What he found, thankfully, wasn't anything threatening, which would have been the icing on the cake that the day had become. Instead, he found the other six Rangers, all lying prone in the grass as he had been. The groan had come from Tommy who was shifting slightly where he lay five or so feet away from Harry. A bit more looking identified Jason as being the next closest, lying off to Tommy's left with the rest of the Rangers spread nearby.

Shrugging mentally, mostly since he felt the physical act would be more painful than it was worth, Harry pointed a finger toward Jason and sent a jet of water his way. The Red Ranger shot up into a sitting position, sputtering and cursing as he went.

"Jason," Harry croaked, more than a bit surprised at how weak his voice was. "Rise and shine, Jason…"

Jason shook himself once more, sending water flying, before turning to face the wizard. "Harry? What the heck man?"

Harry smiled weakly. "Sorry, but I figured it was better to wake you up rather than waiting and I don't know that I can make it over to you right now. I can't even tell you how much I hurt."

Jason cursed quietly before standing, still trying to shake water of himself as he did. "What happened?"

Harry groaned as he slumped back to the ground, lying on his stomach this time. "I honestly have no idea. The last thing I remember is Cyclopsis zapping Tommy and I and then… I woke up here…"

Jason nodded, closing his eyes briefly. "I remember that… and then there was a flash of light. We might have been teleported after that… I don't know…"

Harry sighed. "I dunno either… Maybe one of the others noticed something else…"

Harry and Jason exchanged a glance before Jason nodded and moved to wake up the others. Luckily the other Rangers woke up easily enough and nobody else had to get woken by Harry.

Almost as soon as she woke up, Trini was at Harry side, helping him roll over again and move back into a sitting position. Kimberly was doing much the same thing for Tommy, talking to him softly as the Green Ranger coped with his own case of full-body ache.

"So did anyone notice anything? Does anyone have any idea what happened?" Jason asked after explaining the situation to the revived Rangers.

There was a general head shaking from the Rangers, save for Trini. The Yellow Ranger blushed for a moment before speaking. "It was Harry… He and Tommy were getting shocked and then he did… something… and Cyclopsis stopped moving. Then the MegaDragonzord shut down and I blacked out."

The Rangers shifted their gazes to Harry who just shrugged, wincing afterwards as his body protested. "I have no idea honestly. If I did do something, it wasn't intentional…" He paused for a moment before continuing. "It's possible my magic reacted to protect me. Sort of an instinctual thing…"

The Rangers were all silent for a bit at that, their minds racing. Finally, Jason took charge again. "What matters now is what we're gonna do next. I say we get in touch with the Command Center." Seeing his teammates nodding, Jason lifted his communicator. "Jason to Command Center." The communicator merely let off a two tone beep. "Alpha… Zordon… anyone?"

"It seems that the communicators are unable to establish a stable connection." Billy said, fiddling with his own communicator. "It's quite likely that Rita jammed them."

"Ok," Zack said with a nod. "So we can't get ahold of anyone back at the Command Center, what about teleportation?"

Billy immediately vetoed this idea too, looking up from his communicator with a sigh of resignation. "The communicators can't seem to connect to the Grid either, which makes teleportation impossible."

"Do you think Rita is behind that too?" Kimberly asked while crouched next to Tommy, practically holding her boyfriend in his sitting position. The Green Ranger seemed to be somewhat worse off than Harry, most likely because of Harry's magic protecting him on top of his suit. Though Tommy's waning Power probably had something to do with it too.

Billy just shrugged helplessly. "I suppose it's possible, but I'm not really an expert on magic…"

When everyone turned to Harry, he shook his head slowly. "It might be possible, but I'm not really an expert on Grid Magic myself. We'd have to ask Zordon to be sure."

"Which we can't do right now because the communicators aren't working." Zack sighed. Turning and walking off a few steps before freezing. "Uh… guys…" The unease in Zack's voice caught everyone's attention immediately. Billy and Jason ran to the Black Ranger's side immediately while Trini stayed to help Harry stand, not an easy challenge with his entire body protesting the entire time, and Kimberly stayed near the still largely immobile Tommy.

When they reached Zack's side, Harry noticed what had caught the Ranger so off guard. Where they had woken up, there were several large trees blocking their view of the city proper. Zack had moved off to the side far enough to have a clear view of the buildings that made up Angel Grove, and as a consequence, he could see Cyclopsis standing there like a sentinel of terror.

None of them breathed for several seconds, almost as if waiting for the massive war Zord to make a move. When it didn't, they relaxed a bit.

"What's going on?" Jason asked. "Why is it just standing there?"

"I have no idea…" Zack responded, shaking his head as he did.

"Maybe it was whatever Harry did?" Trini suggested, squeezing Harry's shoulders slightly. "Maybe he took it out of commission."

Harry thought for a moment before responding. "It's… not unlikely. I told you all that my magic reacts poorly with technology most of the time. If whatever Trini saw really was my magic lashing out to protect me, it might have fried Cyclopsis's circuits. That's probably the best news I've had all day."

"What are you guys seeing over there?" Tommy called out weakly, bringing everyone's attention back to the downed Ranger and his girlfriend. After explaining the situation to them, they both seemed to relax a bit as well.

"So we might have a bit of time then?" Kimberly asked, her usual perky smile starting to show itself again.

Harry nodded. "We might. At the very least, they'd have to repair or replace whatever was damaged. I can't really think of any other reason for Cyclopsis to not be leveling the city right now. Or at least looking around for us…"

"Yeah," Jason commented suddenly. "That is a bit strange isn't it? I mean, why hasn't anyone found us yet. We aren't exactly under cover right now…"

"Jason," Zack said, putting a hand on his shoulder. "This may be one of those don't look a gift horse in the mouth situations."

Jason nodded slowly, though his eyes still betrayed his worry. "Yeah, sorry. I'm just thinking, ya know?"

"I think we all are, Jason." Harry said. "I don't know about before I showed up, but I don't think we've ever lost that badly before."

Billy and the girls nodded, but it was Tommy who spoke. "Yeah, we really underestimated Cyclopsis in that last battle. He was way too fast for the MegaDragonzord to handle and he cut down Hedwig like she was nothing."

Harry's eyes widened as he tensed up at the reminder of his familiar. Trini, feeling him tense, gave his shoulders another squeeze. "Harry?" she asked, looking at him curiously.

The Magi Ranger was lost in his mind, however, reaching out through his familiar bond to try and discover what happened to Hedwig. After several tense moments, he felt a ping of consciousness and heard his companion's voice over their connection. - _I am safe, Harry/Wizard. Big Head moved the robot lizards and I to the Zord Hanger. We are recharging. My wing is back, but I will still be unable to battle again for some time…_ -

Harry just smiled as he responded mentally. - _No worries, Hedwig. I'm just glad you're ok._ -

Hedwig sent him a feeling of satisfaction before the link faded again. Harry refocused his eyes on the others before speaking. "I was talking to Hedwig. She said she's alright. Zordon teleported her and the other Zords to the Hanger and they're recharging as we speak."

"Well that's one bit of good news." Trini said, resting her head on his shoulder, though careful not to put too much weight on him in fear of pushing him over.

"But it still leaves us with the question of how to get to the Command Center." Jason said firmly, his game face once more in place.

"Right!" The other Rangers chanted, prompting a soft sigh from Harry.

Billy hummed in thought. "Well, if we can get to my garage, I might be able to alter the modulation of the frequency capacitors in my communicator. That may allow us to work around whatever Rita's doing to block us and allow us to teleport again. And if that fails, there's always the Rad Bug."

Harry raised an eyebrow. "Uh, Billy," he started. "I don't know if you've noticed, but the Rad Bug only seats five, right? And there are seven of us. So how are we all gonna fit in there?"

Zack's smirk lit up his face almost instantly. "No worries Harry. I'm sure Trini and Kimberly can double up with you and Tommy, right?"

The four mentioned Rangers' faces all lit up in blushes almost simultaneously while the other three chuckled good-naturedly. It was something they all needed, a bit of light heartedness to distract them from how deep they were.

And then any plan and good mood they had was thrown out the window by a whirring noise from overhead. Almost as one, the seven Rangers looked up in time to see Rita's flying bicycle being ridden by Baboo. It was hovering overhead and the blue monkey riding it was staring directly at them.

"AHA!" Baboo cheered. "I found you Rangers! YOUR EVILNESS! I'VE FOUND THEM IN THE PARK!"

The response to Baboo's shout was almost immediate as the Rangers found themselves surrounded by a horde of putty patrollers. Their high pitched mumbling nearly loud enough to drown out thought as they hopped and twitched around the perimeter.

Harry pulled his wand quickly, groaning slightly as his body protested the fast movement, even as the five core Rangers formed up in a circle around he and Tommy.

And then Goldar teleported down. "Ah, Rangers… I was wondering where you ran off to… I think it's time we finish our fight once and for all!"

"Jason," Harry hissed to the Rangers' leader. "If I may, I suggest no holding back in this fight."

The Red Ranger seemed confused for a moment before his eyes widened with understanding. "Yeah, I think that may be a good idea… Alright guys, It's Morphin' Time!"

As one, the core Rangers pulled their morphers and thrust them forward. "MASTODON!" "PTERODACTYL!" "TRICERATOPS!" "SABER-TOOTH TIGER!" "TYRANNOSAURUS!"

Nothing happened.

There was no flash of light, no spandex-looking suits, no Power weapons, just… nothing.

The Rangers couldn't morph.

Goldar merely laughed.

"And now you see the true depth of the danger you are now in, Rangers…" the armored simian mocked them. "My Empress has cut off your Power Coins from the Grid and you are unable to access the Power as a result. This means that you can't morph! BWAHAHAHAHAHA!"

"Uh… guys…" Zack asked as the circle of putties began pacing closer to them. "Any ideas?"

Harry closed his eyes briefly, reaching within himself to check his magic. Surprisingly enough, he still had more than half of his reserves left. Although his Grid Power was nearly depleted, which took morphing off the table for him as well, even if only for the moment, he still might be able to do something to help them.

Transfiguring walls would only stall the putties and Goldar for a few moments, not to mention trapping the Rangers within them at the same time. They couldn't really run, mostly since he knew he wasn't up for that much physical activity, and if he wasn't then Tommy, who still hadn't been able to stand, definitely wasn't. If only they hadn't been cut off from teleportation…

Wait… duh!

"Hey guys, I may have an idea." Harry said as quietly as he could, his eyes darting around as he searched for something suitable for his plan. "Rita may have blocked our teleportation, but I doubt she blocked any forms of magical transportation."

Trini and Kimberly shot him disgruntled looks even before immediately returning their eyes to the approaching horde. "No way, Harry," Kimberly hissed. "You cannot be serious."

Trini was a bit more thoughtful though. "His little popping teleportation thing might be our only way out, Kim… no matter how uncomfortable it is…"

Finally, Harry spotted a stone that would serve his purpose. It was about five inches in diameter and mostly circular and flat. It was probably a landscaping stone that had gotten thrown by a kid from one of the flower beds that dotted the park, but Harry didn't particularly care as he summoned it to his hand.

"I couldn't take all of you at once if I did apparate, and taking one of you each time would be too taxing on my in my current condition, not to mention that Goldar wouldn't let us get away with that, so that's off the table anyway. I was thinking of a portkey." Harry replied, holding the stone out and downward so that Tommy could reach it. "Now when I give the word, I need everyone to touch the stone I'm holding. Even just a finger will do."

"I am going to enjoy your end, Rangers!" Goldar was still mocking as he paced with the putty horde. The entire group was only fifteen or so feet from them on all sides now. It was rather amusing the amount of coordination that was being put into the attack, especially since the putties were largely brain dead, which could only make it harder.

"Are you serious, Harry?" Zack whispered, turning his head slightly and catching sight of the stone in question. "A rock? What the heck kind of good is a rock gonna do? How's that gonna help us escape?"

"Magic, Zack." Harry hissed back. "Just trust me, will ya?"

Jason shrugged, his eyes staying firmly on Goldar who was approaching directly in front of him. "We don't have any other choice. Whenever you're ready, Harry."

"Yeah," Kimberly interjected. "And the sooner the better."

"Alright, I just need to focus for a second." He wasn't the most practiced in making Portkeys. Yes, he had used one against Tommy back when he first broke into the Command Center while still under Rita's control, but that was just for one person, so it wasn't as difficult. This one had to be able to safely transport seven people, two of which were injured, which made it a bit more delicate of an operation.

Ten feet away.

Narrowing his eyes, Harry focused on the Command Center, right in the center of the ring of computers, and summoned up his magic. He tapped the stone with his wand, smiling in satisfaction when it glowed blue briefly, signifying the successful creation of a portkey.

"Alright guys, NOW!" Harry shouted, noting that the putties and Goldar were nearly upon them.

As one, the Rangers spun and grabbed the portkey stone, vanishing just as Goldar's sword, as well as the sword arms of many putty patrollers, passed through the air where they had just been.

-MR-

One moment the Command Center was relatively normal. The computers were beeping, lights were flashing, and Alpha was panicking as he waddle-ran from one computer station to the next, pushing a few buttons at each before moving on to the next one.

The next moment, the Power Rangers appeared from thin air. Only a slight swirl disturbing their image before they solidified a heartbeat later. Six of the seven were standing strong in the instant after they appeared, while Tommy was sitting on the ground, mostly leaning against Kimberly.

Then Harry fell to the ground in a heap.

"Dammit…" Harry cursed, accepting Trini's help to stand again.

"Man, Harry." Zack said with a smile, his good humor returning now that they were out of immediate danger. "Either you're really in bad shape or that portkey thing took more out of you than we thought it would if you're falling down and we aren't."

Harry sighed. "Unfortunately, Zack, falling down after a portkey trip is about normal for me. I just can't get the hang of the stupid things…"

"Rangers!" Zordon's voice interrupted Harry's grumbling. For once, the ancient wizard sounded surprised, but happy at the same time. "It is very good to see you all alive and well. When we lost contact with you after teleporting you out and recalling the Zords, Alpha and I feared the worst."

"You teleported us to the park?" Jason asked, stepping to the front of the group as was his tendency. "Why didn't you just bring us back here?"

Zordon let out a sigh. "That was my intention, however Rita cast a spell around Angel Grove that prevented it from happening, I was forced to redirect you all to the park and hope you would be able to find your own way back here."

"Well we almost didn't." Zack said, patting Harry's shoulder. "If it weren't for Harry and his magic, we would've been sliced and diced by Goldar and some putties in the park."

"Well done then, Harry." Zordon praised the now blushing Magi Ranger. "Your quick thinking not only saved the lives of yourself and your teammates, but may well have given the world a further fighting chance."

"But how can we beat Cyclopsis, Zordon?" Kimberly asked, stepping away from Tommy briefly as she spoke. "That thing is way too fast for the MegaDragonzord and it stood up to our strongest attack without even a blemish!"

"It is true that Cyclopsis is powerful, Kimberly," Zordon responded, nodding grimly. "Especially now that Rita has combined it with Lokar's Power, but all is not lost. Because Rita's palace is on Earth now, she is more powerful than before, but she is also more vulnerable at the same time."

"What do you mean, Zordon?" Tommy asked, drawing attention to him and bringing Alpha forward with his usual litany of devices and scanners to be waved about the injured Ranger.

Zordon continued, ignoring his assistant's actions, though Harry was able to see the concern in his eyes. "Alpha has been able to access Rita's own computer systems with ours. He has used this connection to discover valuable information on Cyclopsis and Rita's plans."

"Rita got hacked by Alpha?" Zack near shouted in surprise before turning to the android. "Way to go dude!"

Alpha tilted his head in confusion for a moment before nodding and turning back to his scans of Tommy. "It was nothing, Zack. Rita's security system on her computer was easy to bypass now that she's so close."

Usually, Alpha would have been acting shy after the Ranger's praise, but Harry supposed that the robot's focus on Tommy preempted his typical attitude.

"Yes, he was able to recover that information and more, but the discovery about Cyclopsis is what is important now." Zordon continued, smiling as he did. "He has discovered that Cyclopsis has an adaptive AI system that works with the pilot to help it adapt to whatever enemy it is fighting. That is why Cyclopsis was so fast after it was reconstructed by Lokar. The AI system came to the conclusion that more speed was needed to overpower the large and slow MegaDragonzord, and so it diverted more Power to make it so."

"So how are we going to overcome such an AI, Zordon?" Billy asked, his eyes dancing at the borderline technical talk going on.

"I suspect that if you switch the modes of your Zords frequently, then Cyclopsis's AI system will be unable to react fast enough, giving you the upper hand in battle. Rita's files indicate that it may freeze up, allowing you to take the advantage and destroy it again."

"But will we have the firepower without Titanus?" Kimberly asked, her face unusually grim.

Zordon merely nodded. "I understand your concern, Kimberly. Titanus is beyond our reach at the moment, but it is possible to free him. It will just take time."

"Yeah," Trini said sadly, leaning into Harry as she did prompting him to wrap an arm around her shoulders. "Time we don't really have…"

"On the contrary," Zordon responded with another smile. "Harry's reaction to Cyclopsis's attack was able to short out a significant portion of the War Zord's internal systems. It will take several hours for repairs to be made, certainly not before tomorrow morning, which coincides nicely with the estimated time for the Zords to be fully recharged."

Harry scoffed internally. If he didn't know any better, he would think that such a coincidence was planned by the Grid.

"So we've got another chance to take that freak down tomorrow then," Jason said with a determined look on his face."

"Yes, Jason," Zordon replied. "And once Cyclopsis has been defeated, a significant portion of Rita's Power will be lost. She has tied up much of her available resources in the War Zord, and its destruction will leave her weakened enough for me to break through her dimensional prison and free all the people of Angel Grove."

"And then we can take that space witch down!" Zack cheered, bringing a smile to the other Rangers' faces.

Zordon merely hummed however, not voicing his agreement or disagreement, but Harry did notice he had taken on a thoughtful look. Zordon was generally against offensive action, Harry knew, but maybe, just maybe, the old wizard was changing his stance a bit.

That might be enough to end this war sooner rather than later…

But for now, it was better to focus on the present instead of some ephemeral future. "So, what's the plan then, Zordon?" Harry asked.

Zordon smiled at his apprentice. "For now, Harry, I suggest you all get comfortable. It isn't safe for any of you to go home at this time, so your only option may be staying in the Command Center for tonight. I will spend the night firming up ideas to give us the greatest possible advantage in our fight tomorrow."

The Rangers seemed a bit taken aback for the moment, but, one by one, saw the wisdom in Zordon's suggestion. Besides the fact that going home to an empty house would only serve to remind them of the situation their families were in, if Rita were to find them at their house, unprotected and asleep, there was no telling what she'd do to them. Heck, killing them and/or destroying the house was probably the least of things she could think of.

Harry winced internally. He was still sleeping in the Command Center every night anyway, and that still wasn't something he wanted to share with his teammates. It was like the cupboard under the stairs, he was embarrassed at his sleeping arrangements at the Dursleys and so hadn't told anyone at Hogwarts about it. Yeah, Hermione had figured it out and he assumed McGonagall and Dumbledore had known anyway, but he had never expressly told anyone. He would just have to take steps to hide his sleeping arrangements from the others and hope for the best.

The conversation mostly broke down at that point. The Rangers milled around a bit, Kimberly and Trini sticking close to their boyfriends while Alpha continued scanning Tommy while Billy watched. Jason and Zack paced restlessly until Zordon suggested they try to sleep and teleported in two of the cots that seemed to be the go-to sleeping arrangement for the Command Center. After Harry placed the cots under a silencing charm, the two Rangers did what they could to fall asleep, though were unable until Harry took pity on them and cast a mild sleeping charm their way.

Tommy was declared physically fit, if sore and weak, and was put to bed in his own cot shortly afterward. The girls weakly protested sleeping in the same room as they guys, though couldn't think of an alternative until Harry vanished into his workroom/bedroom and shrank his desk, trunk, and disillusioned cot, pocketing the last. Trini and Kimberly immediately accepted the room on offer, Trini giving him a kiss on the cheek in thanks, and fell asleep under the influence of another spell almost immediately.

By the time that was taken care of, Billy had followed the lead of the others and was snoring away on his own cot, prompting Harry to give him his own silencing charm to avoid him waking everyone else, leaving Harry the only Ranger still conscious.

"So tell me, Zordon," the Magi Ranger prompted. "What kind of chances do we really have?"

Zordon sighed as he stared at his apprentice, as if weighing him with his eyes. Finally, he spoke again. "I'm afraid, Harry, that as things are, the chances aren't good. Even fully charged and switching modes frequently, the Dinozords and Dragonzord stand little chance against Cyclopsis without Titanus and the Ultrazord as backup. Rita has trapped Titanus underneath Angel Grove in much the same way she trapped the Megazord while Tommy was under her control. And this isn't even taking into account how dangerously low Tommy's Powers have been drained after taking a direct attack from Cyclopsis."

Harry's eyes narrowed. "Then what was the point of all that earlier? Why didn't you just tell us that in the first place?"

Zordon gave him a wry look. "Because, Harry, aside from not wanting to break their spirit, we have little other choice than to try. Besides, there is a way to obtain the Power we will need, and you are key to it."

"What do you mean?"

Zordon smiled. "You are able to access the Grid, Harry, and have shown an amazing aptitude for channeling that Power. My plan involves me using my own Power to support Tommy's failing Power Coin. This will allow the Dragonzord to function at its full capabilities, which will give it an extra edge it didn't have earlier."

"And what will I be doing? I assume I'll be fusing with Hedwig for the battle, right?"

Zordon sighed. "Unfortunately, Harry, Hedwig was more seriously damaged than the other Zords in Cyclopsis's last attack. She will be unable to join the battle tomorrow. I expect her to be recharging and recovering for several more days to be honest. No, you shall be doing the same as I. Just as I once did for you and will be doing for Tommy tomorrow, you will be channeling extra Grid Power to the other Rangers to help empower the Dinozords. I intend for you to act similarly to Cyclopsis's AI system, directing more Power where it is needed to counteract anything sent your way."

"Wait, I'm gonna what?" Harry exclaimed, quite glad for the silencing charms preventing him from waking the others.

"There is no other choice, Harry. Your Power as the Magi Ranger isn't directly compatible with the other Rangers' Mighty Morphin Power, and without a Zord you will be largely unable to contribute directly to the battle to come. The only way you will be able to help them at this point is by enhancing their Zords with pure Grid energy. It is not a difficult exercise to perform, indeed you already have all the knowledge to do so. It is just a matter of applying it."

Harry went silent after that, considering what Zordon had told him. His mentor had a point. Without Hedwig, he really wouldn't be able to do much against Cyclopsis. His track record at fighting against giant enemies hadn't been the best thus far, so the proposal did make a certain amount of sense. But still, Zordon was suggesting something far beyond his level of experience, not to mention comfort. All the same though…

Harry sighed. "Alright, Zordon. If you're sure that's our only option, then I suppose I have no choice but to follow your lead."

Zordon smiled. "Do not worry, Harry. The Grid will help guide you through the exercise just as it has for everything else so far. If you have faith in yourself, your abilities, and the other Rangers, we cannot help but succeed tomorrow. While the battle is going on, Alpha will be directing the Command Center's computers to try and free Titanus from where Rita has trapped him. Hopefully, the information from Rita's database will make such a task easier for him."

Zordon looked thoughtful for a moment before shaking his head slightly. "In the meantime, Harry, I suggest you get some sleep. I shall instruct you on the specifics of the process in the morning before the battle."

Harry just nodded, a blank look on his face as he tried to process everything. Making his way over to the others, Harry retrieved his cot from his pocket and expanded it before laying down.

It took him a few hours before he was able to drop into a restless sleep.

-MR-

Thanks for reading and don't forget to review,

Tenstar12


	39. Chapter 39

Magi Ranger

By: Tenstar12

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or Power Rangers.

 **Chapter 39, in which Harry Becomes the Power that Protects You…**

For Harry Potter, morning came all too early. He had spent far too much time throughout the nighttime hours tossing and turning, his mind racing over what Zordon had told him would be happening the next day. Over how much of the pressure would be on him to get this new exercise right. The consequences of failure would be dire for himself, his teammates, and the world in general.

Fighting against Voldemort somehow paled in comparison to the pressure he was feeling at that moment. It might have just been the difference between memory and the present, or the general scale of things, but Harry was finding the pressure a lot more difficult to endure now.

Maybe it was because, technically, he wasn't going to be on the front lines with his fellow Rangers. The way Zordon spoke of what he would have Harry doing (and the severe lack of real detail on that aspect was causing its own element of tension) brought to mind the image of Harry remaining behind in the Command Center while the others went to fight without him. He had never really been good at sitting out battles when he felt he needed to be there. He had been involved in the fight against Cyclopsis when it began and when things went wrong, the thought of not being there in person at the end just rubbed him the wrong way.

Or maybe he was just nervous.

In any case, Harry didn't look nearly as rested as the other Rangers by the time they all roused themselves the morning after their disastrous first round with the Lokar empowered Cyclopsis. It was something that all his teammates noticed, though none commented on it beyond Trini hugging him a bit tighter than normal in greeting. This was most likely because they all had their own worries on their minds. While Harry's sleep spells had enabled the others to rest well (too bad he couldn't have done the same to himself), it was clear that their minds immediately returned to the matter at hand once they regained full consciousness.

"So, Zordon," Jason asked, his face as grim as it usually was when discussing Power Ranger business. "What's the plan? Did you come up with anything other than switching our Zord combinations frequently?"

Zordon nodded, humming in confirmation. "Indeed, Jason. Alpha's scans of Tommy reported that his Power is critically low. No matter what we do, today will likely be the Green Ranger's final battle."

Everyone's eyes went to Tommy, including Harry who had been told this the night before, even if not in the same words. Their faces were grim, fear warring with concern as they looked to their depowered teammate. Tommy, however, looked resolute. "I'll do whatever it takes. Even if it costs me my Powers or my life, I'll fight Rita to the last."

Kimberly buried her face into Tommy's chest, wrapping her arms around him as tightly as she could even as Zordon spoke again. "I do not think it will come to that, Tommy. I wouldn't ask you to put yourself as such risk if there was another option, and if you were to morph with your Powers as they are now they would fail within minutes, even outside of combat, leaving you completely vulnerable. No, I intend to bolster your Power with my own, preventing such failure, so that you may fight once more at your full capability, even if it is for the last time."

Everyone's faces relaxed a bit. With Tommy able to fight at full Power, and thus the entire Mighty Morphin' team together, they all felt a bit better than before. Tommy just nodded, smiling now. "I'm ready when you are Zordon."

Zordon nodded back before speaking. "I'm afraid that it is not yet time for the battle. We still have a few hours before Cyclopsis and the Dinozords and Dragonzord are ready for battle. In addition, there is more to the plan that you have not yet been told."

"What more can there be to it, Zordon?" Zack asked, his perpetual good mood already making a full reappearance. "We morph, call the Zords, and then we'll keep switching combinations to throw off Cyclopsis's computers before finishing it off with the MegaDragonzord and Hedwig in her warrior mode. Hedwig can help keep Cyclopsis distracted so it doesn't scrap us in mid change, and once the AI freezes up we should be good to go, right?"

"There is one large flaw in your plan, Zack." Zordon replied grimly, frowning slightly as his eyes flicked to Harry. "Hedwig will not be available for the battle to come. Indeed, as I told Harry already, I doubt the Silver Owl Zord will be ready for combat again for several more days. As such, Harry will be staying here in the Command Center."

"So we're gonna be fighting alone?" Jason asked, his arms crossed and his forehead creased, clearly unhappy with this latest revelation. A month or two ago, Jason would have immediately rounded on Harry and blamed him for staying out of the fight, despite Zordon being the one to call for it, so Harry figured this was something of an improvement at the very least.

"Not at all, Jason." Zordon said, shaking his head as he did so. "Just as I will be supporting Tommy's flagging Power, Harry will be utilizing a technique to empower the rest of you, specifically your Zords, to help negate any advantage Cyclopsis's AI has over the Megazord combinations."

Everyone's gazes shifted to Harry now and the Magi Ranger found himself shifting a bit under the scrutiny. After a moment, Jason turned back to Zordon. "How is that going to work?"

Zordon hummed in thought for a moment. "I intend to have Harry connect with your Power Coin Jason. As the leader of the Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers and the pilot of the Tyrannosaurus Dinozord, you are central to the balance of your team and its connection to the Grid. Through this connection, Harry will feed Grid Power into your Dinozord, and from there to the others' once you form the Megazord. At the same time, Harry's consciousness will follow along with the Zords and he will be able to add his own will to them, providing an intelligence much like that in the Dragonzord."

"So Harry will be controlling our Dinozords?" Trini asked, shooting her boyfriend a raised eyebrow to which he shrugged.

Zordon paused briefly before responding. "In a manner of speaking, yes. He will be able to exert a certain amount of control over them, but it should not be beyond what you do as their pilots. It is more like he will be aiding the Zords in combat, helping them process commands faster and so increase their reaction time and overall speed. This isn't even mentioning the increase in Power, which will make the Zords that much more devastating."

"You don't sound very sure about this, Zordon…" Zack pointed out, tilting his head slightly as he spoke.

Zordon sighed. "In truth Zack, I am not. There is a chance that Harry's own magic will cause the technique to behave differently than expected. With only Grid Power though, everything should happen as I have described."

Jason didn't seem to like this answer if his stance and expression was anything to go by. It was something Harry could understand since Jason was the primary pilot of the Zord combinations (save the Dragonzord Battle Mode) and the two hadn't exactly been on the best of terms despite the relatively calm period they were going through now. Still, Jason seemed at least grudgingly accepting of the situation. He didn't lash out at anything at least, which was probably as much as Harry could expect.

Zack, as was the norm, broke the growing tension around Jason with his next comment, his eyes going wide as a thought occurred to him. "So, with Harry boosting our Zords, does that mean that we will be able to use magic like him? Or at least through the Megazord or something? Man, wouldn't that be a surprise for Goldar?" Zack jabbed one arm forward as if holding a wand. "Alakazam! Cyclopsis is now a newt! And now POWER SWORD! No getting better for you!"

There were a few weak chuckles from the other Rangers, including from Jason, even Zordon laughed a bit before speaking. "Unfortunately, Zack, aside from the general incompatibility between Harry's branch of the Power and that used by the rest of you, Harry will be unable to channel his own brand of magic into the Zords during this battle. If it becomes necessary in the future, it is possible that he could be able to do so with more experience in channeling Grid Power alongside his own magic, but for now it is unlikely."

Zack's face was almost comical as it drooped, bringing another round of weak laughter. Finally, he spoke again. "Oh well, at least he can still help us turn Cyclopsis into a pile of scrap and save our city!"

The others all nodded in response to Zack's declaration, but Jason merely turned and stared into Harry's eyes. Once by one, the Rangers noticed the stare down and grew silent. Even Zordon refrained from speaking as the Red Ranger and Magi Ranger matched gazes. Finally, Jason spoke. "Can you do this Harry? Is this going to work out or do we need to find another way?"

Harry kept his eyes locked on Jason's even as he shrugged in response. "I honestly don't know. I've not done anything like this before personally. Zordon did boost my Power while you guys were trapped on the Island of Illusion, so I have some experience with it from the other side. But Zordon says that I'll be able to pull it off. He told me that it is a combination of a few exercises I've already learned, so I'm not working from scratch here. I don't know for sure if it will work, but I'm willing to try my best to make it happen."

Jason seemed a bit irritated by Harry's unsure response at first, but by the end of it, he was, if not smiling, at least less grim than he had been. "Alright then, if Zordon thinks it'll work then I'm all for it." Jason came a step closer to Harry and held out his hand, palm down.

Almost immediately, Zack and Billy stepped up and put their own hands on top of Jason's, followed by Kimberly, Tommy and Trini. Harry hesitated only a moment before resting his hand atop Trini's.

Jason met each of their eyes. "We're in this together, guys. If we stick together like we always have, stick to the plan Zordon came up with, we can't lose!"

Harry could feel the Grid Power sneaking its way into his mind and body, but forced himself not to react. Somehow, he felt that not going along with whatever ridiculous and corny thing that was about to happen would ruin any goodwill he had gotten from Jason with his response to the Red Ranger's question.

"We are going to do this. We are going to save Angel Grove. We are going to save the World!" a mere second after Jason finished speaking, the seven Rangers collectively flung their arms into the air, hopping slightly so that they all ended up in the air at the same time, each with an arm extended above them.

"POWER RANGERS!"

Harry felt a small bit of himself cringe deep inside.

-MR-

Once the team bonding was concluded, Zordon indicated that it was time to make final preparations. What this consisted of was Harry breaking out the last of his stored food (mostly cereal to be honest) and having breakfast with his fellow Power Rangers. Not many of them had much in the way of an appetite, but they all ate all the same, Zordon advising them that they would need the energy for the battle ahead.

After that, they all had to find something to occupy themselves with while Zordon guided Harry through what he would have to do to link with Jason's Power Coin.

In truth, it was a fairly simple technique. Especially since Zordon would basically be doing all the work for him. All Harry had to do was connect himself to the Grid and then let go, and Zordon would do the rest.

The actual method was far more complex than that of course, but to learn it all himself would take Harry many more years of study. It was far simpler for Harry to just let Zordon take him where he needed to be and then just keep himself there until the Rangers called on the Power when they morphed. That would pull his consciousness back into reality, riding piggyback on Jason's morph and then his Dinozord. From there, Zordon had only the vaguest of ideas as to what would happen, saying that it was different for every Grid Magic user in each separate situation. And again, that was without taking into account the possible effect of Harry's own magic.

Not the most effective of reassurances, but it was more than Harry had worked with many times in the past. At least he had some kind of information to work off of!

After the quick crash course, Harry found himself sitting next to Trini on a conjured couch against one of the Command Center's black walls. The Yellow Ranger had tucked herself into Harry's side, his arm draped over her shoulders and her head on his shoulder. They were talking with Kimberly and Tommy who were sitting in a similar position on another couch a few feet in front of them.

"So," Kimberly asked. "What are you guys gonna do once this is over and everyone is back?"

Trini and Harry exchanged a glance briefly before shrugging almost simultaneously, which sent Kimberly into a giggling fit. "I don't know," Trini responded once her friend had calmed down. "I think I might just want to take a nap… After all this stress, it'll be good to just relax for a while."

"Yeah," Tommy agreed while Kimberly nodded. "I don't know about you guys, but after last night I still feel like I could sleep for a week."

Harry shook his head, a grin stretching its way across his face. "Oh, but you can't just go to sleep you guys."

Kimberly saw the look on his face and let out a small groan of annoyance. "Why's that, Harry?" She finally asked, looking like she was already dreading his answer.

Harry's grin only grew as he met her eyes. "You all have to put in an appearance at the Power Rangers Day Festival that you guys were all so excited about yesterday. I doubt that it'll be cancelled just because everyone was taken captive overnight. Heck, the way things work around this city, I wouldn't be surprised if it was extended to last a week after the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers once again save the city and all its citizens from evil!"

The group groan from the other three Rangers caught the attention of Jason, Billy, and Zack. When they made their way over and had Harry's comment explained to them, they groaned too. "Man, I don't even wanna think about that now! We should have known that Rita would have attacked."

Harry cleared his throat, but said nothing, merely smiling at Zack and making him wince and groan again. "Alright," Zack finally said. "We should have listened to Harry long before we actually did and should have prepared for something like this ahead of time."

Harry shook his head, still smiling. "Well, you can't always live in paranoia like that, Zack. I knew a guy back in my old world like that. He wasn't really a pleasant person to be around. Hell of a good fighter and always good to have at your back, but not really pleasant."

"Harry's right," Jason said, either not noticing or ignoring Harry's look of surprise, comical and overdone as it was. "We couldn't have known something bad was going to happen, but we should have been more suspicious… Maybe not to the extent Harry was since he was practically sucking the fun out of the entire experience, but…"

Harry nodded in acknowledgement of Jason's joke as his teammates laughed. He could take a joke at his expense if it meant boosting up the others' spirits. They would need all the confidence they could get before too long.

The alarms of the Command Center made Harry rethink his opinion. They would need the confidence now!

"Rangers," Zordon said as the seven scrambled away from Harry's conjured furniture and back to the center of the computer ring. "It is time. Our sensors have indicated that Cyclopsis is nearing reactivation. Similarly, the Zords are now ready for battle once again." Zordon then turned his focus onto Harry alone. "Harry, my apprentice, it is time for your greatest challenge yet. Are you prepared?"

Harry took a deep breath, smiling at Trini when she squeezed his hand in support. "As ready as I'll ever be, Zordon."

Zordon nodded even as a cot was teleported into the Command Center in front of Harry. "Good, the first thing you will need to do is to bring yourself directly to the Grid. The method I am going to teach you is what I use when I need to commune with the Grid."

Nodding once more and shooting a quick smile to the other Rangers, Harry settled down on the cot and closed his eyes, listening as Zordon's voice guided him. "I want you to reach deep within yourself, Harry. Reach for the Power within you. The access you have been given to the Grid. Tell me when you've found it."

This was how many of their meditation and training sessions would start. This part of it, establishing his connection to the Grid, typically to draw on its Power, Harry could almost do in his sleep, but Zordon was of the opinion that it was always good to get back to basics when starting something new.

Zordon's voice took on a slightly droning, yet rhythmic quality that helped Harry distance himself from the physical world and reach within without dropping himself into the world of his Occlumency mindscape. Such an action would actually serve to block him from the Grid as he hadn't designed his mental shields with them in mind. Instead, Harry found himself just drifting on the waves of his own Magic, each second bringing him closer to the mote of difference that was the Grid Power within him.

It took him only seconds until he was there. "I've got it, Zordon."

"Good," the wizard intoned, his voice still light. "Now, I want you to reach into the Power. Reach _through_ the Power and find yourself in the Morphing Grid itself."

Harry hesitated only briefly. This was definitely new, and was probably the first point of potential failure simply because of that. All the same, Harry found it surprisingly easy to slip his mental presence into the mote of light and into the Morphing Grid.

All at once, Harry found himself a tiny being in a massive ocean of pure Power. Just like when he had come to find out what had happened to Zordon and had ended up with Powers of his own, Harry found himself nearly lost in the enormity that was the consciousness of the Morphing Grid. Although this time he was slightly more prepared for it by experience and training and felt, so long as the Grid didn't get as active as it was the last time he had communed with it, he would be able to hold himself together.

" **AH! YOUNG HARRY! IT IS GOOD TO SEE YOU AGAIN!"**

The Grid's voice echoed everywhere around Harry and he found himself "cringing" even as he did what he could to cover his metaphorical ears in an attempt to deaden the painful sound.

" **And good to see that you still practically announce all your thoughts to everyone around you when you're outside your mental barriers,** " the Grid's voice was quieter, but was now tinged with amusement. **"I do apologize for that, but I am quite excited, you see. The battle today promises to be most entertaining and I am quite looking forward to it."**

Harry waved off the Grid's apology before responding. "Not a problem, though I'm sure that the people Rita has taken hostage might find issue with your attitude. They probably aren't too happy about being trapped you know."

The Grid's presence seemed to frown briefly, its exuberance dimming a bit. **"Yes… I do believe Rita has gone a bit too far this time. It's one thing to try and control one of my Focal Points, everyone involved in this conflict does, but to explicitly attack those that live around the Focal Points, those that I actively protect… No, I do believe that she has gone too far this time."**

Harry found himself slightly surprised by the Grid's reaction, not to mention its words. Was this the same being that had expressed a preference for balance? It really appeared to be taking a side in the battle to come.

The Grid sensed Harry's thoughts, of course, and responded in kind. **"It is not terribly uncommon for me to have favorites in different battles, young Harry. Indeed, Zordon has always been a favorite of mine and so tends to get more support from me than others he would call allies. Similarly, certain individuals on the other side of the conflict have more favor from me than others. Just as I said before, it's all about balance. Rita will almost undoubtedly lose some of her personal favor with her most recent actions, but that means that someone else on her side of the battle will gain or someone else on your side will lose in kind."**

The Grid's feel became darker, angrier before it spoke again. **"In this case, Rita Repulsa has directly attacked those that I choose to protect. She has used the Power granted to her to take that which I value, that which allows me to express myself in your plane of existence, and that I will not tolerate."**

Harry flinched slightly. "I… I see…"

For just a moment, the Grid's full attention was on Harry, only increasing his feeling of helplessness before, just as quickly, it was gone again. **"Yes… I think that you might… You just might… In any case, no matter how this battle goes, I intend to aid Zordon in his attempted rescue of the trapped citizens of Angel Grove. They are under my protection and I failed them, so it's only right that I help rectify the situation."**

Any response Harry might have made was preluded by an approaching presence. It took Harry only a moment to identify it as Zordon, which brought a sense of relief to him that made the Grid chuckle again.

He really needed to ask Zordon about protecting his thoughts using whatever technique had been developed in this dimension. Occlumency wasn't even remotely effective.

"I'll keep that in mind, Harry." Zordon said as his presence drew up alongside Harry's, giving the Magi Ranger an anchor to further settle him in the immensity of the Morphing Grid. "Perhaps we can address that once the present conflict is settled."

Harry merely gave an affirmative, knowing that both beings would register it no matter what he did. After a moment more, Zordon spoke again. "Come then, Harry. It's time to put the next phase of the plan into action."

With another mental affirmative, Harry grasped onto Zordon's presence and let him lead/pull him wherever was needed. It was only on the edge of his perception that he heard the Grid's last words. **"Good luck to you, Harry Potter. I have been working hard on more aspects of your Branch of the Power since we first met and am most excited to see it in action. I hope you won't keep me waiting too long…"**

-MR-

There wasn't really any sense of time, distance, or speed to be had in the Grid this time around. When he had come in search of Zordon, Harry had been disassociated with the Grid itself, but having the connection he now did made much of the discomfort he had experienced lessen to the point he didn't really notice it.

So it was an indeterminate time later that Harry found himself in an area that felt of his mentor, and there before him were six balls of light: Black, Pink, Blue, Yellow, Red, and Green. Furthermore, each of the lights gave off a slight feeling of his friends when he focused on them in turn. Zack, playful and fun loving, but serious when called for. Kimberly, loyal almost to a fault and protective of those close to her, but willing to give anyone a chance. Billy, intelligent and introverted, but coming out of his shell with the help of his friends. Trini, kind, helpful and willing to do anything and everything to help those in need. Jason, focused on his goal with an intensity rarely seen and protective of his friends and teammates. Tommy, determined, willing to put his own life on the line to protect those close to him, yet tinged with a hint of darkness from his time under Rita's control. A hint that fueled his determination that much further in an attempt to make up for what he sees as his shortcomings.

Harry snapped back to himself when Zordon gave him a mental poke. "This, Harry, is what you could call my own corner of the Grid. It is where my accumulated Power has gathered together, which is why these lights are here. They represent my creation of the Mighty Morphin' Branch of the Power and resonate with the essence of all those who have used it, including the current Ranger team. This is the sum of all my studies into the Grid and the Power. In time and with practice, you too shall have a similar place."

Harry reached out with his mind, attempting to take in the scope of the area, but found himself unable to comprehend it all. "Woah… I guess you collect a lot of Power in ten thousand years, huh…?"

Zordon chuckled. "Yes, Harry. I believe that I can safely say that I am one of the most powerful light sided Grid magic users, if not the most powerful. Alas, while I am trapped in the time warp I am largely unable to make use of it, and if I were to leave somehow, I would likely age at a highly accelerated rate until death."

Harry winced. That was quite the conundrum. Zordon had all this Power, Power that Harry could literally not sense the end to, and he was almost completely unable to make use of it without risking his own life. If there is even a way to break him out of the time warp prison in the first place…

"Unfortunately, Harry, we don't have time to waste pondering what ifs. The Rangers are awaiting my signal to morph into battle, and we don't have much time left before Cyclopsis becomes active again."

Harry shook himself briefly, refocusing his mind on what needed to be done. "Alright, Zordon, how are we going to do this?"

Zordon's presence emitted a feeling of satisfaction. "It is rather simple at this point, Harry. All you need to do is grasp the Power for the Red Ranger much as you did the Power within you. Anchor yourself to it, but be careful not to let yourself be absorbed into it. You are separate from the Power, but will give of yourself to enhance it. Then, you will merely have to wait until the Rangers morph."

Harry blinked, momentarily overwhelmed by the situation. He had to hold onto it, but not let it absorb him? Was the Power going to try and pull him into it? Would he end up stuck as part of Jason's morph? A second consciousness that could only outwardly express itself when Jason was in suit?

That might interfere with his relationship with Trini if it happened…

Zordon let out a burst of laughter that snapped Harry out of his musings. "No, Harry, the Power is not going to actively try to absorb you. I was merely cautioning you against merging yourself with it unintentionally. If such a thing were to happen, it would be purely of your own doing, especially since the only consciousness currently behind the Red Ranger is Jason's and the two of you haven't always been on the best of terms. I doubt he would want any kind of merging any more than you would.

Harry blushed as Zordon's laughter continued, but moved himself forward all the same. Drawing closer to the Red Power, Harry reached out and touched it, feeling that same Jason-ness even stronger as he did so. Zordon gave off a feeling of approval before speaking. "Good, Harry. I must go now, but I suspect the call will be made shortly. Remember, trust in yourself and the other Rangers and you cannot fail."

And then Zordon's presence was gone and Harry was alone. He almost started to panic, but found himself settling slightly because, while his mind was gone, Zordon's essence was spread throughout the entire area around him. Harry was literally floating at the center of Zordon's Power, and that though coupled with the feeling of his friends still emanating from the colored motes of Power let him relax enough that it seemed that almost no time had passed before he heard Jason's voice echo around him. "It's Morphin' Time!"

It was time to go to work.

-MR-

It started with a tug. The slight pulling sensation was coming from the Red ball of Power Harry was touching, but that's all it was. Harry wasn't actively fighting to remain within the Grid and the sensation didn't seem to stutter or anything so he wasn't too worried.

Then the Black light visibly shrunk, pulling in on itself until it went from a globe that was, metaphorically, similar in size to Harry to the barest mote of light. Moments after that, the Pink light did the same, followed by Blue and Yellow.

Then the Red light contracted and Harry felt like he was being pulled through a small tube, a sensation not unlike apparition, until he snapped back to awareness to find himself in Angel Grove Park.

"Woah!" Zack's voice allowed Harry to reorient himself. He found himself floating, still feeling as his pure consciousness did in the Grid. Harry spun and caught sight of the suited Black and Blue Rangers standing a few feet from where Harry was floating and a few feet down, telling him that he was floating over the Rangers' heads.

"Yeah, that's a nice look on you, Jason." Harry turned the other direction to see Kimberly, who had spoken, with Trini next to her and Tommy beyond them. "Though I think Trini may say she prefers it on Harry." Kimberly idly jabbed at Trini with her elbow only to receive a playful slap on the shoulder from the Yellow Ranger.

"What are you guys talking about?" Jason asked, prompting Harry to look down, discovering that he was hovering above and slightly behind the Red Ranger.

The Red Ranger who was currently sporting the same silvery-white vest/cloak garment that Harry himself wore while morphed into the Magi Ranger, the symbol of the Deathly Hallows standing out proudly on the back a clear indicator.

Finally, the Red Ranger noticed a bit of unexpected white out of the corner of his eye and realized what he was wearing. "What the… How did I get Harry's cloak?"

"It's probably a side effect of Harry boosting your Power right now," Tommy mused.

Billy nodded his agreement. "Affirmative, that is a rather likely hypothesis."

"Still a bit disturbing though…" Harry said. He was caught completely off guard when Jason nearly jumped out of his skin.

"Harry?" the Red Ranger asked, glancing this way and that as if expecting to see the wizard.

"Uh… Jason?" Zack asked, taking a step closer to his friend. "What are you looking for? Harry's back at the Command Center, remember?"

"But… I heard…" Jason said, still sounding somewhat off.

"Huh… so they can't hear me, but you can since I'm connected to your power at the moment. That would've been good to know beforehand."

Jason groaned. "Seriously, Harry? Well try not to distract me when we start fighting. That would probably turn out badly for both of us."

"Jason…" Zack said, speaking slower now. "Why are you holding a one sided conversation with someone that we all know isn't here?"

Jason nearly growled in frustration before turning to Zack. "Harry is here too, just not visibly. He said only I can hear him because he's connected to my morph. That's probably also why I have his cloak on."

Zack seemed unable to formulate an answer, but it turned out to be a moot point because in the blink of an eye the Rangers were surrounded by putties.

Jason didn't waste a moment. "Alright, Rangers. This is the beginning of the toughest battle we've fought yet and these putties are the first step in winning! Let's take these clay faced freaks down!"

"RIGHT!"

And then the battle was on.

From the perspective of an observer, Harry was able to appreciate that Jason was an incredible fighter. He would have to be in order for him to be allowed to teach a Karate class at his age, but Harry had never really been able to notice it in their previous battles. Any other time, Harry had been more worried about fighting his own allotment of putties or avoiding Goldar or the monster-of-the-week to really notice too much of what the others were doing. Unless they were saving his backside that is, but he tried not to think about that part too much.

Jason, with his invisible tagalong, charged into the horde of putties, leading off with a full force punch with all his momentum behind it that laid out the target. He then moved fluidly into a spinning kick, catching another construct as it approached from the side. All in all, Jason's fighting style was strong, straightforward, and ruthless. More than once, Jason took a hit in order to catch the fist, foot, or weapon-appendage of a putty so he could then deliver several devastating blows while it was trapped.

The trick was, it wasn't a way Harry was comfortable fighting. With all the practice Harry did back in his world learning to dodge spells, taking hits like Jason did in order to deliver his own was practically anathema to him, and that was only one example. The biggest thing it came down to was that Harry just didn't have the same stocky build as Jason, so fighting like that didn't work for him.

To be honest, it was quite likely another reason that Harry didn't really learn as much from Jason as he had from Tommy since quitting Jason's class. Simply put, although Tommy's style of fighting was admittedly more flamboyant than Harry was comfortable with, his tendency to dodge and counterattack rather than take the hit, the sheer amount of movement that he did just suited Harry better.

Of course the fact that Tommy didn't have a grudge against Harry like Jason certainly helped too.

The group of putty patrollers that the Rangers was facing was likely the same large group that had assisted in kidnapping Tommy and had nearly caught the Rangers before Harry's portkey whisked them away. The big differences between now and their two previous encounters was that the Rangers were prepared for battle and were already in morph.

The battle was practically over before Harry really had time to get bored with floating overhead, unable to do anything to help and too afraid of distracting Jason to really say anything.

It wasn't more than a few seconds after the last putty vanished that Goldar's voice roared out, amplified by the systems of his War Zord to a volume usually only reached when the monster had been grown. "RANGERS! IT WAS NICE OF YOU TO JOIN US, BUT YOU'RE TOO LATE! CYCLOPSIS IS ACTIVE AGAIN AND NOW YOU'RE DOOMED!"

From among the buildings of Angel Grove, Harry caught sight of the towering form of Cyclopsis. As he watched, its eyes lit up with a brief pulse of electric blue light before it turned to face the Rangers directly and moved to make its way out of the maze of buildings.

Jason turned to the other Rangers. "Alright Rangers, let's let Cyclopsis get out of the city before we call in the Zords." For once, the Red Ranger was speaking at a quieter volume than normal, presumably to avoid detection by Cyclopsis.

"Good idea, Jason," Kimberly said with a nod.

"Agreed," Billy was quick to follow with a nod of his own. "We need to prevent excessive damage to the city as much as possible."

The others gave a round of nods before Jason shifted a bit uneasily and spoke again. "Harry…" the Ranger was clearly uncomfortable with speaking with someone he couldn't see, yet knew was there. "Keep an eye on Cyclopsis. We may need to teleport if it starts getting too close to us."

Harry nodded briefly before remembering that nobody could see him. "Can do, Jason. You guys might want to get moving though."

Jason only nodded before signaling the other Rangers into a mad dash for the uninhabited land that started on the outskirts of the park and continued on to the horizon.

-MR-

Harry hadn't had to watch Cyclopsis for too long. After less than a minute of running, Cyclopsis was able to clear the buildings (though why Goldar didn't just take his War Zord through the buildings was beyond him, even if he wasn't upset that he hadn't) and the giant robot's equally giant stride had forced the Rangers to teleport to their destination fairly quickly. Luckily enough, Cyclopsis still seemed to be heading their way without a care in the world.

"Alright guys," Jason said, once more half-shouting. "Let's take this guy down! WE NEED DINOZORD POWER, NOW!"

As one, the Core Rangers flung their hands into the air as they called their Zords with Jason. As he was directly connected to Jason's Power, Harry could feel the call as it went out. There was a massive pulse in the aura of Grid Power around the Red Ranger that rippled through the air as it went, almost visible to Harry in his ethereal state. After a few moments, the pulse returned almost as if it had rebounded, and washed over and around Harry before latching onto him and pulling him away from Jason.

For a moment, Harry panicked. It only lasted a moment though because between one moment and the next, Harry found his consciousness inhabiting the Tyrannosaurus Dinozord.

It was a very novel experience. So far today, Harry had gone from wizard with a physical body, to an ethereal projection on the Morphing Grid, to an ethereal projection attached to Jason, and now he was stomping forward in the mechanical body of Jason's Dinozord. The body was mostly moving on its own, though Harry quickly picked up on how his thoughts could influence the Zord's systems when a passing thought made it stumble, nearly causing the Tyrannosaurus Dinozord to faceplant into the ground. Seeing as it was at the front of the pack of other Dinozords, such a fall would have caused a disastrous pileup that would have meant the only Dinozord arriving to battle would be the airborne Pterodactyl.

Definitely not something that would bring about victory.

Settling as best he could, Harry noticed that Angel Grove and Cyclopsis had come into view just as five streaks of colored light shot up and toward the Dinozords. Moments later, Harry felt Jason's presence settle somewhere within his form and heard him call out to his teammates once more.

"Log on!"

"Zack here, powered up and ready!"

"This is Billy, all systems go!"

"Trini here, ready to rock!"

"Kimberly here, flying high!"

"Alright, Rangers, power up your crystals!"

"Two! One! Power up!"

Whatever the Rangers were doing caused another pulse of Power to emanate from each Zord. This time, when the pulses met each other they rebounded, somehow gaining in strength as they traveled back to their origin Zords, creating a connection between them.

And with that connection, Harry felt himself spread out amongst the five Zords.

Being effectively pulled in five directions was even more disorienting than before, but his connection was still strongest with the Tyrannosaurus, so he was able to center himself on it. Turns out, he did so just in time as when he refocused himself, Jason's Dinozord was entering combat with Cyclopsis.

The battle was different from anything Harry had experienced so far. While the merger he was currently experiencing was similar to what he did with Hedwig, the lack of a personality from the Dinozord prevented the double identity feeling that he experienced when first combining with his familiar. At the same time, Jason was controlling the actions of the Dinozord directly, guided by the grid, and the general lack of control was disconcerting, especially since the robot he was currently inhabiting had comparatively short and stubby arms and a tail that was nearly as long as it was tall. Neither of these things made Harry feel comfortable, and that was before the first time Jason guided the Zord into a tail swipe.

There was something especially off putting at feeling like you were attacking your opponent with your butt…

Any time Cyclopsis would start getting the upper hand on Jason (and Harry by extension), one of the other Zords would take the opportunity to attack and throw the War Zord off its game. Cyclopsis managed to lock up the Rex's stubby arms? Here comes Kimberly and the Pterodactly with an aerial assault from behind. The Rex's tail caught after another tail swing? Trini and Billy's Zords deliver a two pronged assault from laser cannons mounted on their backs. Caught in a deadlocked grapple that Cyclopsis is slowly winning? Zack directs the Mastodon Dinozord to freeze the ground beneath Cyclopsis, making the massive machine slip and fall and giving Jason the opportunity to attack.

The only issue was that none of the Dinozords alone had the ability to come close to damaging Cyclopsis. Beyond that, Harry quickly picked up on the slight adaptations that Cyclopsis's AI was making as the fight continued. After a few exchanges, the War Zord seemed to become much better at countering Jason's attacks and it was only the assistance from the others that kept things from breaking down almost before they really got going.

Apparently Jason came to the same conclusion on his own, as he made the call. "Alright guys, move on to Megazord Tank Mode!"

Harry then felt another strange sensation. He felt as the Rex's legs folded up beneath it and connected to the Triceratops and Saber-Tooth Tiger Dinozords. Through the peripheral connection he had to each of the other Zords, Harry felt the changes made in each Zord before they joined the gestalt. He felt as sections rotated into new configurations and panels shifted to reveal connectors to lock the machines together. He felt the Mastodon practically disassemble as the head, including Zack's cockpit, broke free from its body that then contorted to form cannons before the two separate parts locked onto the front and back of the Tyrannosaurus. Then the Pterodactyl kinda tacked itself onto the back just behind the Rex's head.

As one, the eyes of each attached Zord flashed rapidly with a distinctive purple tint and Harry suddenly found himself connected to all of the Rangers as well as their Zords synched up.

The rush of awareness was a bit too much all at once. "Bloody Hell!"

"Harry?" Trini asked, glancing around her cockpit frantically. "Where are you?"

"More importantly, how are you in our heads?" Kimberly near shouted.

Jason just snorted, even as he triggered the Zord tank's cannons and sent Cyclopsis reeling. "And you guys were looking at me like I was crazy."

Unfortunately, the Megazord Tank Mode wasn't really able to offer much variety that would keep Cyclopsis off guard, especially without any backup like the Rex had had alone. After a few more blasts, Jason called for the next change. "Switching to Megazord Battle Mode!"

There was relatively little change to be had this time, for which Harry was thankful. The barrels at the ends of the Tank Mode's cannons flipped around to reveal hands and the Pterodactyl detached, flying up into the sky. The Triceratops and Saber-Tooth Tiger Dinozords effectively threw on the front breaks, using the momentum to stand the entire thing up. Then the Rex's head folded down to reveal a much more human shaped one and the Pterodactyl attached to the chest.

While all the transforming was going on, Harry felt the Rangers teleporting once again, reappearing in a chamber in his chest that served as the control center for the Megazord. With a final flash of light, the Megazord's eyes lit up purple and Harry found himself, if not comfortable, at least more capable in this humanoid form. Futhermore, he realized after a stray thought caused the Megazord to move, he had a much greater degree of control over the Zord's movement than he had with the Tyrannosaurus.

This was not in the plan.

Cyclopsis, or more likely Goldar, seemed to hesitate for a moment. It could have been because of the brightly glowing purple eyes that the Megazord now sported, much different from the usual. It could have been that he was waiting for the Megazord to make the first move. Or it could have been that he was giving the adaptive AI in his War Zord a chance to analyze its new opponent with the Zord's full processing capability. Whatever the reason, neither Zord moved for several seconds after the Megazord took to its feet.

The Rangers within though weren't quite as calm and focused as Harry.

"Jason," Billy said, panicked. "None of my locomotive controls are responding! A systems diagnostic reports that nothing is malfunctioning though!

"Power level readings are through the roof," Zack said next, sounding equally nervous. "That's probably because of Harry, but nothing I try is showing any kind of response either!"

"Dammit!" Jason shouted, slamming a fist into the console in front of him. "What's going on?!"

This definitely was not in the plan!

"Hey!" Harry said, somewhat surprised to hear his voice echoing outside the Megazord as well as within the control center. "Take it easy in there will ya?"

"Harry!" Trini responded quickly. "The Megazord won't move! We don't know what's going on!"

Harry nodded, which really meant that the Megazord nodded, freaking the other Rangers out in the process. "I know. It seems that whatever Zordon set up for me to do has put me in control of the Megazord. Must be one of those potential side effects from my magic."

"WHAT!?" the Rangers were all shouting now, but it was Goldar's response that Harry paid the most attention to.

"THE MAGELING IS IN CONTROL OF THE MEGAZORD? OH, THIS JUST KEEPS GETTING BETTER! NOW I WILL BE ABLE TO DESTROY THE MEGAZORD AND DEFEAT THE MAGELING AT THE SAME TIME!"

"Guess again, Goldar!" Harry responded, pointing dramatically at Cyclopsis as he did so. Internally, Harry grumbled. The Grid was making him do corny things again, and with how deeply immersed in Power he was there was no way for him to fight it.

Shaking off the thought, Harry charged forward, the steps from the massive machine shaking the earth beneath him. When he got close enough to Cyclopsis, Harry led with a punch backed by a burst of Power, bringing the blow in faster than Goldar could react and sending the War Zord reeling in a shower of sparks.

"YOU WON'T GET AWAY WITH THAT AGAIN SO EASILY, MAGELING!" Goldar roared as Cyclopsis recovered its balance and returned to the fight, swinging one of its arm blades in an attempt to cleave the Megazord's right arm off.

Harry, however, found it remarkably easy to avoid Cyclopsis's attack. And the several following it. For whatever reason, Cyclopsis seemed to be moving in slow motion compared to Harry/the Megazord.

It was the Rangers watching from within that figured it out though.

"Harry is moving so fast!" Kimberly cried out, awe in her voice.

"No, he's moving like he does when he's fighting!" Jason responded. "The Zords always move at a slower overall speed than we do ourselves because of their size. Harry combining with the Megazord like this must be boosting our speed to something he's more familiar with."

"Perhaps it has something to do with his own magic too…" Billy offered.

"Yeah, that makes sense." Trini said with a nod. "If the Power could let us do this, Zordon probably would have made it happen long before now."

Harry just tuned them out though, focusing instead on the fight at hand.

Cyclopsis was indeed much slower than Harry was at the moment, but Goldar was a much better fighter. This made the fight more or less even, though the balance was shifting in Goldar's favor as Cyclopsis's AI began to increase its speed capabilities.

Harry launched a punch that Cyclopsis deflected before responding with a slash from the blade on its other arm that Harry was able to sidestep. When Harry tried to move in again, a quick swing from Cyclopsis's blades forced him to backpedal or take the hit. Cyclopsis followed through though, chasing Harry backwards as Goldar guided the War Zord's blades in a flurry of movement, the speed increasing all the time until Harry found himself unable to avoid the attack and took a blow to the chest.

Harry stumbled backwards as the Rangers within his Zord body grunted from the impact. He was able to recover his footing quickly, but Cyclopsis was still right on top of him, leaving Harry unable to launch a counterattack. "Guys," Harry grunted as he took another light hit. "Any ideas would be grand!"

"What about the Power Sword?!" Zack asked.

Harry took another few blows, stumbling backwards amidst the sparks. "No good. I can't use a sword!"

"Right!" Jason shouted with a nod before lifting his communicator. "Plan B then! Tommy, call in the Dragonzord!"

There was no verbal acknowledgement from Tommy, but moments later the Rangers heard the six note summoning song echo throughout the area. Mere moments after that, the Dragonzord stomped into view, water glistening off of its metal armor in a few places as it barreled into Cyclopsis from the side, knocking it away from Harry.

Harry then found himself turning toward the Dragonzord and nodding. The draconic machine roared in response as Tommy teleported aboard in a flash of green light before they both faced Cyclopsis again and marched forward side by side.

Cyclopsis wasn't idle this time. The War Zord charged forward and once more began its flurry of slashes that had stymied Harry so well before. This time though, Harry was ready, or at least the Grid was. From deep within, Harry felt a surge of Power and reacted faster than before, catching one of Cyclopsis's blades in each hand.

There was silence for a moment. Goldar didn't seem to know how to react and Harry and the Rangers were just stunned. Then, the Dragonzord roared again and spun in place, bringing the spinning drill tip of its tail around and crashing into Cyclopsis's now immobile blades, breaking them off of each arm a few scaled up inches from their base.

Cyclopsis reeled back, though Goldar roared his defiance. "DON'T THINK THAT THAT WILL STOP ME RANGERS! CYCLOPSIS STILL HAS PLENTY OF SURPRISES LEFT IN STORE FOR YOU!"

Harry didn't respond, instead charging in once more with the Dragonzord right behind him. He knew they had to keep Goldar off balance or they might not get another chance. Once again, Harry led with a punch that Cyclopsis deflected, but this time the Dragonzord's tail swung in from behind and knocked Cyclopsis into Harry's reach.

Taking advantage of it, Harry grabbed onto each of Cyclopsis's arms to hold him in place and kicked as best he could. The rather clunky form he was controlling meant he couldn't really kick as high or with as much strength as he had been taught, but he was still able to hit hard enough to knock Cyclopsis away from him in a shower of sparks. The War Zord stumbled, but didn't fall at first. Then the Dragonzord let loose with a barrage of missiles from its fingertips, finally knocking Cyclopsis off its feet and to the ground with an earth shaking crash.

"Alright guys, we've got him on the ropes! Form MegaDragonzord!

Jason's call from inside Harry's chest brought him pause. And then he found he couldn't move at all as the Grid took over completely. Harry was once more relegated to an observer as the Dragonzord contorted and folded itself before splitting open and forming the same shoulder mounted weapons platform that he had seen the day before. Then, the Grid guided Harry into a surprisingly high jump for how little he was able to crouch. At the peak of the jump, Harry found himself slotting smoothly into the Dragonzord's current configuration.

When he landed once more mere moments later, Harry found himself still unable to move, but this time was because he wasn't alone. Yes, Tommy had teleported into the chest compartment and joined the other Rangers when Harry had joined with the Dragonzord, but that wasn't what gave him pause.

There was yet another mind merged with his.

The presence was silent, but very imposing in its silence. Above all that, he got the feeling that it was measuring him, as if testing his worthiness for some nebulous purpose. Then Harry heard an all too familiar mechanical roaring sound in his mind and it all made sense. He had connected to the Dragonzord, which was self-aware beyond the rest of the Rangers' Zords. It only made sense that it would have some presence when it connected to the Megazord, even if the other Rangers never really noticed. Finally after a few moments that felt much longer, Harry felt what could only be approval before another roar echoed through his head and he found himself able to move again.

By this time, Cyclopsis was back on its feet and Goldar was blustering as always. "HA! AS IF YOUR PATHETIC ZORD COULD DEFEAT ME THIS TIME WHEN IT FAILED SO READILY YESTERDAY! YOU'RE FINISHED NOW RANGERS!"

"If you say so, Goldar," Harry shot back. "But somehow I feel like this time is going to be different."

And Harry wasn't just talking this time. From deep within him, Harry could feel his Power surging upward of its own accord. If he had to guess, he would say that it was the Grid stepping in against Rita.

It was never a good idea to annoy that which gave you the Power to fight.

Harry didn't even have a chance to see what he could do with the MegaDragonzord as before he even took a step closer to Cyclopsis, a bolt of lightning burst forth from the sky and struck somewhere in Angel Grove proper. Both massive figures turned to face the city, but Harry and the Rangers let out a cheer when the ground began to rumble and Titanus came into view, freed from Rita's confinement by the Grid's action.

"WHAT!?" Goldar roared. "HOW IS TITANUS FREE?! THAT'S IMPOSSIBLE!"

Harry smirked, though the immobile face of the Megazord didn't show it. "That's the problem, Goldar. Rita went too far this time and is paying the price for it now!"

Once more, Harry leapt into the air, again surprisingly high given his limited mobility, this time though, his jump was angled towards Titanus, landing in the massive Zord's open back just as it finished transforming. Again, Harry felt another mental presence measuring him, but satisfaction was reached much faster this time as Titanus readied itself for combat. With it came a feeling of utter confidence, nothing the ancient Zord had met could stand against the Power of the Ultrazord.

"NO!" Goldar cried out, disbelief in his tone and his words. "NOT THIS AGAIN!" Cyclopsis was twitching and stumbling in place, apparently unable to move. It would seem that the War Zord's AI had finally reached its limit with the two rapid form changes and was in overload.

As the Grid Power filled him, Harry found himself chanting alongside the other six Rangers. "Ultrazord, LOCK ON AND FIRE!"

As Titanus's big guns opened fire along with numerous energy weapons from the Dragonzord addition, Harry felt a small pulse of magic from within Cyclopsis as Goldar teleported out just before his War Zord's destruction. Then, as the blasts began hitting the now immobile machine, Harry felt a much larger presence cry out in pain and outrage as Lokar, still fused with Cyclopsis since its reconstruction, realized that he was about to be destroyed along with it.

And finally, with the usual massive explosion, the battle was over. The Power Rangers had saved the day again.

-MR-

With a bright flash of light, Angel Grove went from abandoned and battle scarred to full of life once again. It had only taken Zordon a matter of minutes after Rita fled Earth in fear of Ultrazord's weapons being turned on her palace for the wizened sage to break through her spells holding the people of the city captive. The fact that the Grid had already weakened so much of her magic with its intervention, plus the destruction of Cyclopsis taking even more of her Power made all the difference in the end.

All over the city, the people of Angel Grove looked around in shock and gratitude. They had each experienced every moment locked in the interdimensional void Rita had trapped them in. Unable to speak or move and trapped in an endless void of darkness, it had been like something out of a never ending nightmare and they were all ecstatic to be free again.

This was especially true for those citizens who had been attending the Power Rangers Day celebrations as there was no doubt in their minds as to whom had been responsible.

Unless you were Bulk and Skull who had reappeared on the stage in the park and immediately fell to their knees and began kissing the stage, repeatedly shouting "We're back!"

It didn't take long for a white haired woman in a purple dress with a pearl necklace to chase them off stage and take position behind a podium off to one side.

Before the woman could speak, a cry of excitement went up from the crowd as someone spotted a flash of color out of the corner of their eye and turned to see the six Mighty Morphin Power Rangers approaching. The crowd immediately erupted in cheers and applause, even as the woman on stage called for them to clear a path for the Power Rangers.

Harry just snorted and rolled his eyes from beneath his helmet. He had taken a position off to one side of the stage, standing next to a metal support frame that was holding up some of the many and varied decorations around the area. He was also under a disillusionment charm. Feeling slightly drained after his efforts earlier and with his general attitude on the festival as a whole, he had no real desire to get involved in the celebration.

As the six made their way through the crowd of their fans, Harry could see that they were all keeping a rather serious attitude. If this meet and greet had happened before the whole Cyclopsis thing, he was sure that they would have all been soaking up the adulation of their admirers. As it was, they all knew how close they had come to losing everything. They had learned that a bit of fame and recognition wasn't worth the potential risk that something like having your own holiday and festival devoted to you could bring in the situation that they were in.

If nothing else, at least there was that.

- _Come on, Harry/Wizard,_ \- Hedwig sent to him from the Zord Hanger where she was still recovering. - _Let the others have their fun. Not everyone has had the same experience as you. I doubt there are people like the Bug-lady here anyway._ -

"It's not so much that Hedwig," Harry spoke aloud, though quietly, knowing that Hedwig would hear him. "I know that the press here won't be able to shift the people of the city against them like they did to me back home. Heck, after this I doubt anyone in Angel Grove will even listen to a single bad word about any of the Rangers even if some news group did report it. I'm just comparing the experience the others are having with what I went through. I guess I'm feeling a little bitter that they have the undying love of everyone and I got… well, I got buried under a pile of hippogriff manure semi-regularly."

Hedwig sent him the mental equivalent of an affectionate nip. – _Do not dwell on it, Harry/Wizard._ _You are here now and there is no sense in getting upset over lost opportunities or what might have been. Doing so will only make you bitter like Greasy-Teacher at Hoggy Home. It is better to embrace what you have now than to dwell on the past._ -

Harry snorted slightly, but still nodded. Hedwig was right after all, and he knew better than to argue with her. Sometimes, she was even worse than Hermione could be…

By this time, the Rangers had made it on stage and the woman, apparently Mayor Carrington, had begun her speech. "As the Mayor of Angel Grove City, it is with great pride that I stand here before you in the presence of true heroes. They have risked their lives countless times for the safety of our city and its people. They are true examples of good triumphing over evil and now it is time to thank them. They are the Power Rangers!"

The crowd burst into cheers again as the six on stage began waving to them, though perhaps more awkwardly than eagerly.

Harry ran his eyes over the crowd. Among them were people he had fought to save multiple times, even though he didn't know more than a few of them by name and some of those people didn't even know the real him. Children were running around everywhere, cheering and clapping like crazy. Many of them, and even some of the adults, were wearing clothing decorated with Power Ranger helmets, stylized designs of the Zords, and other similar things. A few of the kids were even running around in full costumes of the Power Rangers. Here and there he saw miniature versions of the Red, Blue, Pink, Yellow, Black, and Green Rangers. He even saw more than a few Magi Rangers, one even had a small Owl toy perched on their shoulder. He had always struggled with his fame back home and accepting recognition for even that which he had done himself, but maybe Hedwig was right. Maybe it wasn't all bad to give these people the opportunity to thank him. Or at the very least let those among the crowd who were there to see him specifically get the same satisfaction as everyone else.

With a sigh and a hidden smirk, Harry summoned up the Magi Staff and tapped it on the ground, releasing a pulse of magic from the top as he did so. The bolt of magical energy raced into the sky, a bright streak of light that caught the attention of several nearby people before it exploded into fireworks. For several seconds, flashes of red, green, yellow, blue, black, pink, and purple lit up the sky and the faces of the crowd as Harry manipulated the magic into moving images that were his best attempt at replicating the work of the Weasley Twins on such short notice. Fiery versions of the Rangers and their Zords danced across the sky as the crowd cheered ever louder.

Finally, when the show ended, Harry apparated to the stage, coming to stand next to Trini on the end. She elbowed him slightly as he joined the others in waving to the crowd to much cheering. "Glad to see you decided to join us, Magi."

Harry rolled his eyes. "Well, I couldn't let you guys have all the adoration, now could I?"

From there the Rangers disbursed amongst the crowd, talking to their fans and answering questions. Surprisingly enough, not too many of the people asked personal questions, and those who did accepted that the Rangers couldn't answer and just moved on to something else.

After thirty or so minutes, Mayor Carrington called everyone's attention back to the stage where the curtain was drawn back to reveal a large banner showing an image of the five core Rangers standing with the Power Blaster while the Green and Magi Rangers stood in the background to either side with their own weapons brandished at the ready. It was a surprisingly good picture, especially as no such pose had been done in reality to the best of Harry's knowledge, but it was the band on stage that caught most people's attention. They were a local band apparently, and had approached the Mayor about performing at the festival.

Although rock wasn't really Harry's thing, there was something appealing about the song they had written about and for the Power Rangers. And the guitar riffs were rather fun to listen to as well.

Even if the lyrics for the second verse were pretty bad.

-MR-

The Rangers left the park shortly after the band finished playing. While the crowd was sad to see them go, the Rangers all knew they had to put in appearances in their civilian garb. No doubt their families and non-Ranger friends were all worried about them, especially since, as far as they knew, everyone in town had fallen prey to Rita's trap. It would be better to reassure them that everyone was alright.

The entire situation was a bit bittersweet when it came to Tommy though. Yes, they had defeated Rita once more when she was at her strongest, but her plotting had cost them a beloved ally. This was made all the more obvious when the team met up again in the Command Center once all families had been reassured. Kimberly had the most extreme reaction with tears running down her face, but nobody was happy with the situation.

"Well," Tommy said grimly idly turning his Power Coin in his hand before closing his fist around it and looking up at the other Rangers. "I guess this is it…"

"Tommy…" Kimberly near-sobbed, burying her face in his shoulder and wrapping him in a tight hug, Trini standing nearby to support her friend. Harry and the others stepped up close, the Red Ranger putting a comforting hand on Tommy's shoulder in support.

Zordon merely nodded in agreement, his own face as grim as the Rangers. "Indeed it is, Tommy. You and the other Rangers were successful in defeating Cyclopsis and chasing Rita off once more, but now additional measures must be taken to prevent Rita from obtaining the full extent of the Green Power."

"Just tell me what I have to do, Zordon," Tommy replied, wrapping his left arm around Kimberly in his own attempt to support his girlfriend. "I swear to you that I'll do whatever it takes to keep these Powers out of Rita's hands.

The grim determination in Tommy's voice took Harry aback for a moment. He had thought that Tommy had mostly gotten past his regrets about his actions while under Rita's control, but the tone of his voice made him rethink that. The teen almost sounded like he'd go so far as to kill himself it Zordon had told him that that was what was necessary!

And Harry hadn't been the only one to notice this if the wide eyed looks on Jason and Zack's faces were any indication.

Zordon's voice put paid to any further thoughts along that path with his next words. "All you must do, Tommy, is willingly hand over your Power coin to Alpha 5. He will then place it within a shielded area that will prevent Rita's Green Candle from draining the last of the Power from it. Without the full extent of the Green Power, Rita will not be able to recreate the Green Power Coin and thus the Evil Green Ranger."

Tommy's face never lost its firm resolve as he opened his fist to study his Power Coin one last time. "Alright, Zordon." With no hesitation, the Green Ranger held the coin on his open palm out toward the robot. "Here you go, Alpha. Do what you have to do."

Alpha waddle-stepped forward, reaching out and taking the coin from Tommy, causing the tiniest burst of Power to flare in Harry's senses when it was picked up. "Thank you Tommy. I'll make sure that Rita can't do to anyone else what she did to you." With that said, Alpha turned and made his way over to one of the computers before pressing a series of buttons.

Just in front of Zordon's tube, a section of the floor about two feet square began to rise up with a hiss of compressed air. As Alpha made his way around the computer bank, the section rose high enough for the Rangers to make out what looked like a glass cube filled with smoke with the floor paneling above and a metal pillar below. When the tube stopped rising, Alpha opened one side of the cube, letting the smoke escape and revealing an ornate golden box, bedecked with jewels in the same colors as the six Mighty Morphin Rangers.

Almost reverently, or at least as reverently as a robot can be, Alpha opened the lid of the box and placed Tommy's Power coin within before shutting it with a soft click. Then, the robot closed the glass box once more.

Three things happened almost at once.

First, Harry once more felt a slight surge of Power as whatever protections were on the cube reengaged with the closing of the door.

Second, the moment the door was closed, the smoke reformed within, obscuring the golden box from view once more.

And third, Tommy let out a soft gasp of surprise before his knees gave out accompanied by a shocked cry from Kimberly as she struggled to hold him up after being caught off guard.

Harry reacted fast with a wandless levitation charm, helping Kimberly support Tommy until Jason and Zack were able to move in to help physically. "Are you alright?" Kimberly asked, her face red, though no more tears were falling.

"Yeah…" Tommy replied as he managed to get his knees under him again. "Yeah, I'm alright. I just feel… weak… I guess."

"That is to be expected, Tommy." Zordon spoke, catching everyone's attention. "Just as Rita is now cut off from stealing the last of the Green Power, so too are you cut off from its use. Your body has become used to having this Power running through you at all times, so being without it can be a shock to your system, but there should be no permanent health issues."

Even as the trapped wizard spoke, Harry could visibly see Tommy drawing himself up again. Recovering after being stripped of the Power he had grown used to. For his part, Harry couldn't even imagine having his Power taken from him, though that could have something to do with the fact that losing his Power would most likely also mean losing his inherent magic…

Shaking himself out of his thoughts, Harry turned his attention back to the others. Tommy was now looking at each of the other Rangers one by one. He met Harry's eyes last before speaking. "I just want to thank all of you guys… for everything. After everything I did while under Rita's control, you didn't have to accept me like you did, and I can't tell you all how much I appreciate it."

Jason clapped Tommy solidly on the shoulder, staggering the other, still weakened teen slightly as he did. "Don't worry about it man. You were one of us… You still are one of us. Powers or no Powers. Once a Ranger, always a Ranger."

Tommy smiled at Jason even as Zack spoke up. "Yeah, and it's not like we'll never see you again. We go to the same school after all."

This brought a weak round of chuckles, injecting a bit of levity into the otherwise grim situation as Zack was wont to do.

Harry just snorted at the thought of Tommy vanishing from their lives just because he had lost his Powers. "Not only that," he quipped, smirking good naturedly as everyone's attention was brought to him. "But I still hope to meet with you for karate practice, if nothing else. Don't think any of us will let you go that easily. I doubt Kimberly would even hear of it."

"And you still have your communicator so you have no reason not to keep in touch." Billy added once everyone had stopped chuckling, finally changing Tommy's pensive look into a relaxed and somewhat relieved smile.

Kimberly, ignoring Harry's joke at her expense, just smiled at Tommy and hugged him tighter while Trini nodded her own support.

"Your teammates have spoken truly, Tommy." Zordon said, his own smile on his face. "You were indeed a fantastic Power Ranger, a great teammate to the other Rangers, and a hero to the entire city. You demonstrated this from the moment you joined the other Rangers after Rita's spell was broken. In this latest battle, you could have stayed behind, but you put your failing Powers to the test and your life on the line to fight against Rita's forces one last time, and for that you will always be welcome here in the Command Center. If you ever have need of help or advice, you only need ask and it will be given."

Tommy's smile grew slightly as he nodded. After a few moment of silence, Jason stepped up and extended his hand forward, palm down. Tommy was quick to place his hand atop Jason's, soon followed by the other Rangers (Harry only offering a shrug first as he accepted the Grid's influence over him).

Jason met all their eyes again as he spoke. "Once a Ranger, always a Ranger. We're a team, even if we aren't all able to fight the same way anymore. We're here in spirit if nothing else."

The Rangers smiled at Jason's words, though Harry winced internally at the corniness the Grid had prompted the Red Ranger into.

Finally, Harry felt the Grid prompt him and he joined the other Rangers as they all hopped into the air, flinging their arms up as one. "POWER RANGERS!"

-MR-

When only Harry was left in the Command Center, the others having all teleported back to Angel Grove for the night, Harry turned his full attention to his mentor. Zordon had seemed rather thoughtful even as he spoke to the Rangers. The others had been too distracted with the entire situation with Tommy, but Harry had spent too much time around Zordon to miss the unusual attitude.

"Alright, Zordon," He said with a weak smile as Alpha bustled about as usual. "What's with the deep thinking? We won, didn't we? All's well that ends well and all that?"

Zordon let out a sigh, closing his eyes as he did so. "I have indeed been thinking a great deal, Harry. I never doubted that you and the other Rangers would be successful in this latest battle, but what about beyond that? Rita has proven that she will stop at nothing to achieve her goals, even going so far as to actively work against the Grid and risk losing everything. While doing so again will almost certainly see her losing her Powers, there is no predicting the lengths that she may go to and whether we will be as successful on all fronts in the future."

Zordon opened his eyes again, focusing their full intensity onto Harry as he continued. "In many ways, Harry, you are responsible for this latest line of thinking, as I doubt it would have ever entered into my mind without your presence. You have spoken of your opinion on my attitude and rule of no escalations of battle, how only being a reactionary force can only lead to problems when fighting a war. While I didn't initially put much stock into it, I now see that you have a very good point."

Harry's brow furrowed as he thought over Zordon's words. "Are… are you really suggesting what I think you are, Zordon?"

Zordon merely nodded. "Yes, Harry. I believe that Rita's latest act against the Earth, bringing her palace here and calling upon Cyclopsis, represents a great enough threat for us to do the same to her. With her weakened in the aftermath of our latest battle, I believe that it may be time to prepare to make our own assault on Rita's Palace and end this conflict once and for all."

-MR-

AN: As of 12/10/17, I have re-read, edited, and removed AN's that I found necessary from the first 39 chapters of Magi Ranger.

Thanks for reading and don't forget to review,

Tenstar12


	40. Chapter 40

Magi Ranger

By: Tenstar12

AN: First things first. I want to give a shout out to ShadowXV. They have been invaluable to the creation of my Season 2 plotline, acting as a sounding board and helping with the development of many ideas. I salute you, my friend.

Editing of the First 39 chapters has been finished. Nothing super crazy really changed other than the removal of extra AN's and fleshing out the scene at the end of the previous chapter. Those interested in reading a more detailed version of Tommy's aftermath can return to Chapter 39 and search for "The Rangers left the park shortly after the band finished playing."

And now, on to what you've been waiting for.

I take you back, my morphinominal readers, to July of 1994, or at least those of you old enough to have been alive and aware then. Back when all of us young Power Rangers fans were excited over the next big thing: Power Rangers Prime Time! Over the course of three weeks, Saban gave us three episodes on Friday evenings that unveiled the Thunder Zords and sparked off MMPR Season 2. I, like many of you I'm sure, remember begging my parents to record it on VHS (on a tape that I probably still have around here somewhere), and getting a bit annoyed with them when they ended up recording an episode of the Simpsons before part 1. Ah… Good times… But by the Grid if Season 2 wasn't cheesy as all get out and, if possible, even harder for adults to watch than Season 1! I mean, heck, for a good part of the season, Saban was still dead set on using up the last of his Zyu 2 footage, so the Thunder Megazord never actually appeared on screen with the monster it was fighting. If you think there's a scene in the first bit of the season where they do, you're probably wrong. I found multiple instances where the Gen 1 megazord was hidden behind sparks and smoke and several more where it was a different monster hidden similarly on screen with the Thunder Megazord… *sigh* Anyway ladies and gents, it's time to get Season 2 started! Back to Action!

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or Power Rangers.

 **Chapter 40, or A New Evil…**

Peaceful days were rather rare in Angel Grove.

Granted, this was to be expected when there was a vengeful space witch that had set her sights on the city for some reason unknown to the average citizen, but the fact remains.

One might think that people would allow themselves to relax a bit between attacks, for they weren't at all regular or predictable, and indeed that was the case for some time. After the first several attacks however, when the phenomenon was established to be more than a fluke, even the most relaxed of individuals couldn't help but stay tense. For most people who regularly walked the streets of the coastal city in California, there was a constant sense of unease. Stress permeated most people's day no matter what they were doing even through the general aura of happiness that also permeated them. Even though the Power Rangers were there to protect them, and nobody had technically been hurt since the battles really began, the constant worry had become a factor in everyone's life.

After the first few months though, most people adapted. Yes, there were always those few who were doomsaying every moment of every day. There were those who let the stress get to them and gave up hope. Yet many, many more had learned to live with the stress and make the best of the day when they could. Go out with their families when the weather allowed, typically to Angel Grove's massive park; enjoy the little things and generally live life to the fullest they could. So even though there was the constant threat of attack, the average citizen of Angel Grove had adjusted and they were actually happier for it.

And no matter what their outlook on things, everyone always celebrated each and every Power Ranger victory. And so despite the lack of peaceful days, the people of Angel Grove were largely content.

At least when a giant monster didn't stomp on their car or whatever.

Such also became the norm for the Power Rangers themselves. Not knowing just when exactly they would be called to battle, the five teens that made up the core Mighty Morphin Power Rangers, along with the Magi Ranger, Harry Potter, had learned to enjoy themselves and relax whenever the opportunity came up. Whether it be through practicing their physical activity of choice, be it martial arts, dancing, gymnastics, or what have you, or by just hanging out around the Youth Center or park.

Every once in a while, these activities took a different form, such as the current situation.

Trini and Harry were having a picnic.

It was an uncharacteristically warm day for Angel Grove in late January, with the high resting around seventy degrees, and everyone was taking advantage of it as they could. As such, the park was rather full, making it difficult for the two Rangers to find even a slightly secluded spot for their date, but they did what they could to block out the sounds of the people around them as they sat together beneath one of the large trees that dotted the park.

This particular tree was on a recently finished area of the park on the opposite side of the lake from the entrance, and was situated on a hillside with a winding paved path going down it. The gentle slope of the path had attracted many a biker and roller-blader and several people could be seen coasting down the hill, simply enjoying themselves.

Harry and Trini just enjoyed their moment and stared out over the lake, watching the sunlight glisten off the water. They had finished their meal more than an hour ago, but were too relaxed to even try to move, sitting as they were in what had become their normal position with Trini tucked up to Harry's side and his arm over her shoulders.

A few days after the Rangers had thwarted Rita's most recent attack and chased her once more off the Earth, Zordon had called them to the Command Center. The overall air had been fairly light, if a bit somber as Tommy's absence was once more felt as the Rangers gathered together again in the Command Center for the first time since he lost his Powers. It wasn't as though they hadn't seen the teen at all, as Zack had put it, they all still went to the same school, but Tommy had been spending a bit of time by himself. He claimed he just needed a few days to deal with no longer being a part of the team, but at the very least he hadn't blocked Kimberly out or rescheduled his Karate lessons with Harry, so the team was overall confident that he would be alright. All the same, the reality of the entire situation was still made that much more prominent now that the Rangers were all gathered in their headquarters again.

The group were drawn out of the doldrums, however, when Zordon began speaking. "Rangers… in the wake of Rita's most recent attack, I have done some thinking. Some time ago, Harry shared with us his history and made a point about purely reactionary tactics not working well. Since then, I have considered his words carefully…"

The Rangers' attention was firmly seated on Zordon at this point, aside from a few glances at Harry when he was mentioned. What the wizened sage was speaking of was a potential change in the norm for the Rangers. Not something to take lightly.

"I have come to the conclusion that Harry has a valid point," Zordon continued after a momentary pause to gather himself. "If we ever want to finish this fight and ensure the safety of Angel Grove and the Focal Point, plans must be made to engage Rita directly on the Moon. She must be defeated once and for all and we cannot hope to do that so long as we continue to wait and defeat her monsters and schemes on her terms."

Jason quickly stepped forward. "But Zordon, what about the oaths?"

Zack backed his friend up just as fast. "Yeah, won't taking the offensive like that count as escalation and cost us our powers?"

After the other Mighty Morphin Rangers had voiced their agreement while Harry merely stood silently to one side, Zordon answered the question. "I have meditated on this very topic for these last few days. My conclusion, one that is supported by the Morphing Grid, is that Rita's actions in her most recent attack, specifically bringing her palace to Angel Grove, warrant an equal response. This means that we can take the fight to Rita without risking violating the rule against escalation that was set into the Mighty Morphin Power when I negotiated for its creation."

For a moment, the Command Center was silent aside from the constant beeping of the computers and other electronic noises. Then, when Zordon's word's fully processed in the Rangers' minds they each reacted. Jason and Zack almost immediately began smiling, both eager to strike back properly at Rita. Kimberly and Trini looked rather worried, perhaps not entirely enthusiastic with the plan, but more than determined to go along with it, if only to protect those close to them. Billy looked absolutely ecstatic, though if Harry were to guess, it was more because of the chance to go into space than anything regarding the battle to come.

Harry resisted the urge to roll his eyes. Zordon had gone over his theory with him just after the battle against Cyclopsis ended. He was actually rather surprised that the wizard had waited so long to share it with the rest of the Rangers. Though having had to commune with the Grid to make absolutely sure there wouldn't be any unforeseen consequences was a very likely explanation.

"So when are we gonna do this, Zordon?" Zack asked, near dancing in place in his excitement.

Zordon merely smiled at the Ranger's exuberance. "You will have to contain yourself for several more days, Zack. I will need time to plan and prepare before we can launch such an assault on Rita's palace on the moon. Not the least obstacle being getting you all to the moon in the first place." Zordon's eyes swept over the six teens before him before nodding. "In the meantime, I ask that you all ready yourselves as best as you can. I shall inform you when preparations have been made."

This had been a few days before. While Zordon was making said preparations, mostly involving stockpiling an absolutely massive amount of Power to the point that Harry almost preferred to stay away from the Command Center as of late to avoid the constant buzzing of his senses, the Rangers had been set to do the same as best they could.

For Jason and Zack, this meant practicing and fine tuning their fighting forms while helping Billy do the same. Kimberly and Trini had done much the same, but not with the same intensity as the other three had, mostly focusing on flexibility and gymnastics in Kimberly's case while Trini practiced her Kung Fu.

All fit in around going to school, of course

Harry had, much like Zordon, gathered as much Power as he could and finding that his capacity had actually increased markedly after synching himself with the other Rangers' Zords during the battle with Cyclopsis. The problem was that he still met his maximum capacity very quickly, a direct result of the short time he had been able to use the Grid's Power, and so Harry found himself merely returning to his regular schedule with his regular magical and karate exercises fairly soon.

But today, Saturday, January 29th and exactly one week after Rita kidnapped the citizens of Angel Grove and unleashed Cyclopsis, was to be a day of rest and recovery before the attack was made the next day. The Rangers had all set aside their practice and preparations and effectively took the day off so as to have the best chance of success in what might be the final battle in the war between Rita and Zordon.

Thus Harry and Trini on a picnic.

It's too bad it just wasn't to be…

-MR-

"Harry…" Trini said suddenly, breaking the pleasant silence. "Do… do you think we can do this? I mean… Can we win?"

Harry turned slightly to face his girlfriend. Based on the tension on her face, this was probably something that had been running through her head for a while. He smiled at her reassuringly. "Trini, I believe that we can. We've faced off against everything Rita has had to offer time after time and she won't be expecting an assault on her home turf. We'll be catching her completely off guard, much like she always has with us. On top of that, Zordon says it will take a lot more time for her to recover her strength after her last scheme. We've got this."

Harry squeezed her a bit tighter. "Now I'm not saying it won't be a tough battle. If nothing else there will probably be a bunch of putties there to deal with, not to mention Goldar and Scorpina, but we've always handled them before too. It's like Zordon says, have faith in the Power and let it guide and protect you and we can't help but succeed."

Trini giggled slightly before poking his side, making the Magi Ranger squirm and quickly bringing about a brief tickle fight.

The moment of levity was broken by a crack of thunder erupting through the sky overhead, making Harry, Trini, and pretty much everyone else in the park jump and cry out in surprise.

Shortly afterward, several people began shouting and pointing upward, letting out further exclamations of fright.

Harry and Trini exchanged a glance before quickly scrambling to their feet and out from under the cover of their shade tree. What they saw when they emerged shook them to their core.

Far above them, floating in the sky over Angel Grove, was a fear inspiring figure. The only thing visible was the chest up, but that was more than fearsome enough. Its skin was largely a deep, blood red color with lines of silvery metal running atop the muscled surface over the sternum and ribs and up over top of the shoulders to the back. The face was a mask of that same metal forming a grill where the mouth and nose would be with fully the upper half of the face being taken up by a red visor, again outlined by the metal. From the center of what would have been the figure's forehead, a silvery spike jutted up, only partially obscuring the view of what looked like the figure's exposed brain at the top of its head.

And then the figure spoke in a deep, gravelly voice that seemed to shake the very earth beneath Harry's feet. "Attention, citizens of Angel Grove. I am Lord Zedd, ruler over all that I see. If you thought that Rita Repulsa was the epitome of evil, then you're in for a nasty surprise. I hereby claim ownership over your city and your pathetic planet. You are ordered to vacate the city of Angel Grove or face total annihilation!" The figure, Lord Zedd, let loose with a laugh that sent a shiver down Harry's spine, along with those of several other nearby people if he were to guess.

Harry shot another glance at Trini, meeting her eyes before both nodded firmly. A quick glance around showed that everyone's eyes were riveted onto the sky where the image of Lord Zedd continued to stare down at the city. Taking advantage of the situation, Harry shrunk their picnic supplies quickly before taking Trini's hand and running with her to find a secluded place. They needed to get to the Command Center as quickly as possible.

It seems as though the situation may have changed rather drastically.

-MR-

Harry and Trini were actually the last to arrive at the Command Center, teleporting in to find the other four Rangers all talking loudly over each other. Apparently, they had all been at the Youth Center and so had only clearly heard the tail end of Lord Zedd's message by the time they were able to get outside.

Zordon, seeing that the final two Rangers had arrived, almost immediately spoke up. "Please, Rangers, now that the last of your number have arrived, the time for explanations is here."

Jason, predictably, stepped up to the front of the group again. "Who was that guy, Zordon? What's going on?"

"That, Jason, is the sum of my fears coming true," Zordon answered, a hint of regret in his voice. "I had hoped that you would never have to hear of, much less face off against Lord Zedd, but circumstances make that unavoidable now."

"Yeah, but who is he?" Zack said with a certain unease in his voice when Zordon seemed unable to continue.

Zordon sighed. It was rather clear to them all that he was worried. "Lord Zedd is the ruler of an Empire of Evil that spans across a substantial portion of the known universe. He is a Grid Magic user of great power and skill. He is also, ultimately, Rita's immediate superior."

"Say what now?!" Zack exclaimed, stepping back in surprise, an emotion shared by all the humans in the room. "Rita has a boss?"

Zordon nodded. "Yes, Zack. Rita is a general in Zedd's Empire of Evil who was set against me by Zedd himself long ago. Lord Zedd is the true villain I was facing, but Rita proved to be a substantial obstacle, too much of one as it turned out."

"You said that Zedd is a Grid user…" Kimberly asked in the silence that followed Zordon's statement. "Do you mean like you, Rita, and Harry?"

"Yes, Kimberly." Zordon replied, seemingly relieved to change the subject, even if only slightly. "Zedd is a being who has experimented for many thousands of years in the use of Grid Power. Indeed, his own form is the result of his experiments and is the reason he is still alive after more than ten thousand years. He has found a way to grant himself immortality, even if that meant sacrificing his original body in order to do so."

The Rangers were taken aback by the thought. Zedd had willingly turned himself into what looked like something out of a horror film in order to avoid death. Harry just shrugged it off. Voldemort had done something similar in his old world, sacrificing the reportedly good looks of Tom Riddle to become the snakelike Voldemort that Harry had known, all in the name of eternal life.

"In addition to this," Zordon continued. "Zedd's Power is not one to be trifled with. All Grid Magic practitioners have a specialization, a style of Grid Magic that comes to them easier and more powerfully than others. Rita specialized in magics of destruction and ritual magics. I specialize in illusions and stealth. Harry will one day specialize in kinetic magics. Lord Zedd specializes in magics of transmutation."

"Magics of change?" Billy asked. "How would that serve as a threat?"

"It is not so much the nature of the specialization that brings the threat, Billy," Zordon responded. "It is in how Lord Zedd has trained himself to use that specialization. It is the key to his success as an Emperor of Evil. Zedd has trained himself to use these magics of Transmutation to create monsters from anything he chooses. And because these magics fall into his specialization, the monsters he creates will be more powerful than any you have faced so far."

There was only silence from the humans in the room as they processed Zordon's words. A new, even more powerful villain to face in place of the old? It was quite a bit to take in.

"But wait," Jason said suddenly. "What about Rita? What about the plan to take her out once and for all?"

Zordon sighed again. "I'm afraid that, in light of the current circumstances, the attack on Rita's palace will have to be delayed indefinitely. I cannot condone such an attack with Lord Zedd now making his own play for Earth's Grid Focal Point. Especially since it is quite likely that Lord Zedd has taken over Rita's palace as his own. We don't know when he will begin his attack, so we must be wary."

As if the words were prophetic, the Command Center's alarms began going off almost immediately. Alpha was the first to react, true to form. "Ai yai yai yai yai! Zordon! Rangers! The computer's sensors have picked up a disturbance in Angel Grove."

Zordon nodded firmly. "Then Lord Zedd's attack has begun. Rangers, observe the Viewing Globe."

Moving quickly, though none quicker than Jason as he wove through his team to once more stand at the front of the group now facing the globing orb, the six Rangers gathered opposite Zordon to see what new threat they would be facing this time. What they saw instead was a house in a suburb, presumably nearby Angel Grove.

"Uh… Zordon…" Harry started, "What exactly-" Harry's words were cut off when a bolt of lightning arced through the air before curving sharply and entering the house through a window. Mere moments later, a fish monster of some kind busted down the front door of the house, accompanied by screaming that was probably from the house's owner, and ran off down the street.

The monster wasn't anything special really, basically just looking like a big fish head with a humanoid torso, arms, and legs. Its feet were a deep green, but the rest of it was largely grey with a while belly and some pink or red on the tips of the multiple fins that protruded from its form.

When the image in the Viewing Globe faded, the Rangers turned back to Zordon. "Unfortunately, Rangers, there is little I can tell you about Zedd's first monster."

"Huh?" Kimberly said, quirking her head to one side. "Why's that Zordon? You always had a whole list of things to tell us about Rita's monsters…"

"That is because Rita didn't make her monsters herself, Kimberly." Zordon said solemnly. "Rita's monsters were created by a being known as Finster. He is an alien that is from a race known through the universe for their sculpting ability. Finster uses his skill, along with a machine known as the Monster-Matic, to create Rita's monsters that she then empowered as she saw fit, though she was unable to change their base nature. The monsters created by Finster had been used by Rita in the past, and indeed had been created by many others of Finster's race over the millennia, so a great deal is known about them and their weaknesses."

"But Lord Zedd makes his monsters himself," Billy surmised, drawing everyone's attention to him. "So you don't already have information about them since each one is new."

"Indeed it is so, Billy," Zordon replied, nodding again. "And the fact that Lord Zedd can choose how he designs the various powers and abilities of each monster makes them even more unpredictable. Even if he were to create the same monster more than once, there could be no guarantee that it would have the same strengths and weaknesses as when last it was fought. Alpha and I will do what we can to modify the Command Center's sensors to help us learn about Zedd's monsters faster, but for now you will all have to do your best in the battle to come. Be vigilant, Rangers, and let the Power protect you."

Jason nodded before turning to face the other five. "Alright guys, let's go show this oversized tuna what the Power Rangers can do!"

"Right!"

Harry just sighed. The increased amount of Power within him had led to him joining the other Rangers in their chant and then squaring up with the others as they prepared to morph. He would never get used to this…

"It's Morphin' Time!"

"MASTODON!" "PTERODACTYL!" "TRICERATOPS!" "SABER-TOOTH TIGER!" "TYRANNOSAURUS!" "MAGI RANGER, POWER UP!"

-MR-

After their post-morph teleportation, the Rangers found themselves standing in the middle of a street running through a suburb. And there, a mere twenty or so feet from them was the fish monster Zedd had created.

"Oh ho!" the monster chirped in a surprisingly peppy sounding voice. "It looks like the Power Rangers have already decided to show themselves! This should be fun!"

"We'll see how much fun you're having once we're through with you, fish face!" Jason taunted as he took a fighting stance.

"Does anyone else find it odd that the fish already knows who we are?" Harry asked, manifesting the Magi Staff and taking his own stance as he did.

"Let's just not worry about that right now, Harry," Trini cautioned, sounding rather exasperated with him. "Let's focus on the monster instead, ok?"

Harry rolled his eyes. "Yeah, yeah, sorry."

"Alright, guys," Jason shouted, apparently ignoring Harry and Trini's conversation. "Let's do it!"

And so the Red Ranger led the charge.

As soon as Jason reached the monster, leading with a flying kick, the first problem was made apparent. Jason's kick did absolutely nothing to the monster. No sparks, no stumbling backwards, no reaction at all. In fact, the only thing that happened was that Jason himself ended up falling to the ground on his back in his surprise from the lack of reaction from the monster.

The other Rangers halted their charges and leapt back a bit, regaining some distance upon seeing Jason's general failure to have much effect.

"Was that it?" the monster asked, idly scratching at one side of its giant head with its right hand. "Then I guess it's my turn!" The fish then lifted up one foot in an attempt to stomp Jason into the pavement. It was an attack that Jason was able to roll away from, if only barely, leaving the monster to drive its foot several inches into the ground and kicking up a cloud of dust.

"Oh man!" Zack shouted. "This guy is strong!"

"Yeah, no kidding," Jason replied as he rejoined the other Rangers while the monster seemed content to watch them in silence.

"Weapons, do you think?" Harry suggested, brandishing his own staff slightly as he did so.

Jason looked in his direction before nodding. "Right, weapons everyone! Let's go!"

Jason summoned up his Power Sword in a flash of red light before once again leading the charge, the other Rangers following with their own weapons appearing in hand.

This time the fish met them partway. Using its forearm to block Jason's sword, although there were some sparks this time to show some damage was done, the monster then drove its other fist into Jason's chest, knocking the Red Ranger back in a much larger shower of sparks.

It then ducked under a sweep from Billy's lance and sidestepped an attack from Zack before knocking them away as well. Kimberly and Trini didn't even get the chance to make an attack as the fish leapt into the air and toward them, meeting them with a pair of kicks that knocked them off their feet and leaving Harry the last Ranger standing.

"So…" the fish drawled, still in its annoyingly perky sounding voice. "You must be the Magi Ranger then, right? I hope you're more of a challenge than those other five were."

Said five were slowly climbing to their feet after the surprisingly hard hits from the fish monster, but Harry put them out of his mind as he summoned up his magic and Power. "Well, I suppose we'll have to see how we match up, won't we?"

With a burst of Power, Harry launched a fireball from the Magi Staff straight toward the fish. The monster merely crossed its arms before it, weathering the attack like it was nothing, but found itself completely unprepared for the follow-up fire whip that wrapped around it and bound it tightly.

Harry kept the fire whip fed with magic, increasing the intensity of the flames until he finally overcame the monster's thick skin, resulting in a steady stream of sparks falling off. "Hey guys," Harry called as the monster began struggling and crying out in pain, though with the interspersed laughter it was hard to tell. "Any help would be appreciated. Hit him hard and fast and we might be able to end this quick!"

There was a heartbeat's pause before Jason spoke. "Right! Guys, let's bring them together!"

"Right!"

"POWER AXE!" "POWER BOW!" "POWER DAGGERS!" "POWER LANCE!" POWER SWORD!"

As the Rangers combined their weapons to form the Power Blaster, Harry felt the fish monster's struggles redouble. He was feeling the strain now and had to feed still more magic into the fire whip just to keep the monster from breaking free.

"POWER BLASTER!" The Mighty Morphin Rangers chanted together as they stood slightly off to one side from Harry so as to have a clear line of sight on the trapped monster. "FIRE!"

A lance of energy shot forth from the power blaster, covering the distance between the Rangers and the monster in mere moments and causing an explosion that broke Harry's concentration as the shockwave caused him to instinctively cover his helmeted face.

For a moment, there was silence…

And then the monster emerged from the smoke, slightly singed perhaps but otherwise undamaged and flying straight at Harry.

The Magi Ranger blinked before quickly summoning up a silver shield with his offhand, blocking the monster's bodily attack, but still getting knocked back and over by the momentum of the charge. Harry found himself on his back with his shield pressed into his chest and the gaping maw of the fish monster mere inches from his face, only being held back by the shield he had summoned.

"Nice try, Power Rangers, but it'll take more than that to defeat Pirantishead!"

"Bloody… freaking…" Harry cursed under his breath, struggling with all his might to heave the flailing fish monster off of him as it simultaneously tried to bite his face off with its multitude of sharp looking teeth and grab ahold of him with its arms so as to better restrain him for said biting.

"Harry!" the Magi Ranger heard the simultaneous cry from several of the other Rangers, but was too focused on not getting bitten to really respond. His left arm was pinned beneath his shield, but his right was free for the moment, flailing around a bit in an attempt to try and keep the monster from fully pinning him down. He had lost the Magi Staff in the fall, but he wasn't especially worried about that at the moment.

With a grunt of effort and a burst of Power, Harry managed to heave the shield, and thus Pirantishead, up off of him far enough to get his other arm underneath. Then high enough to tuck his legs under it too. Then, with an unseen smirk, Harry kicked up and out, amplifying the motion with a pair of wandless banishing charms to the back of the shield, and launched the fish monster high into the air where it was hit with a multitude of blasts from the other Rangers' blade blasters before falling to the ground again.

"Are you alright, Harry?" Trini asked as she and Kimberly ran over to help him up.

"Yeah man," Zack said as the other three joined them, blade blasters still in hand. "You were almost fish food there."

Harry regained his feet with only minor help from the others and summoned his staff back to his hand while nodding. "Yeah, I'm alright, but this guy's a lot tougher than anything we're used to."

"Just like Zordon warned us." Jason said with a nod of his own. "We'll just have to keep at it until he goes down!"

"Right!"

Harry resisted joining this time through sheer force of will alone, instead looking toward where the fish had landed and seeing only a shallow depression in the pavement, otherwise empty of any monster, fish or otherwise. "Uh, guys…" Harry said, pointing toward the monster's last known location. "We may have a bit of a problem here…"

"What?" Jason asked, looking frantically around. "The monster is gone!"

Just then, their communicators went off. "Rangers," Zordon called sounding rather rushed. "The monster known as Pirantishead has been teleported away by Lord Zedd." Harry felt a spark of fear go down his spine at this. He hadn't even felt a teleportation spell… Harry's senses weren't necessarily the most fine-tuned, but he had been able to feel Rita's magic all the way from the moon from time to time. Just who was this Lord Zedd?

Zordon continued speaking, bringing Harry out of his thoughts. "Our sensors have located the monster in the middle of Angel Grove Park near the lake."

"Maybe we really did hurt it and its running to its natural habitat to recuperate." Billy theorized.

"I don't know about that, Billy…" Kimberly replied, sounding as worried as her posture suggested. "Zordon said Zedd is the one who teleported it there…"

"It doesn't matter why it's there, guys, we have to go after it!" Jason near-shouted once again, prompting another round of "rights" (again sans Harry) before the six Ranger teleported once more, this time heading for the park.

-MR-

If the suburban street the Rangers first fought the monster on had been strangely deserted, the area of the park they teleported to was almost too populated. The Rangers found themselves appearing in the middle of a crowded beach to the tune of screaming and panic as the beachgoers fled what could only be Pirantishead.

"Alright, let's go guys!" Jason shouted before running off, dodging past those people who didn't automatically move out of his way.

"Right," Harry scoffed to himself as he and the others followed Jason. "Just follow the screaming. This is bringing back some bad memories…"

It didn't take more than a handful of seconds for Jason to spot the monster from the head of the pack of Rangers. "Over there guys!" he shouted, pointing toward a lifeguard tower standing near the water's edge. Atop the tower stood the Pirantishead monster, laughing as it twirled a chain of some kind in one hand, the rest of the chain stretching between its hands where it was attached to the end of what looked like a fish.

"Ah! Power Rangers," the monster taunted between chuckles. "You've found me again!"

By this time the majority of the crowd had cleared off the beach, only a few stragglers hanging behind, although those were quickly out of sight of the battle to come. "I'm getting sick of your games fish face!" Jason shouted, once more summoning his sword before leaping toward the monster.

This time, Pirantishead released the twirling end of his chain, letting the chain stretch out to meet the Ranger in midair and knocking him backwards in a shower of sparks before resuming his twirling once he recovered his weapon.

"Jason!" Billy shouted as the other Ranger gathered around their downed leader, once more with Harry keeping his eyes on the fish monster. "Are you alright?"

"Yeah," Jason replied as he regained his feet, clutching at a scorch mark on his chest as he did so. "I'm alright, but that guy hits really hard."

"Of course I do!" Pirantishead shouted with another laugh. "I'm one of Lord Zedd's finest creations! You Power Punks will never be able to defeat me!"

"We'll see about that! Aiyah!" Jason shouted before leaping back into battle with the other Rangers right behind him while Harry began spinning his staff to gather some extra Power.

Jason, once more at the head of the pack, once again met with the monster's fish-chain weapon and was knocked back, but Billy and Zack were able to reach the monster itself. They delivered a few strong blows with their weapons as they flew past in their jumps, knocking the monster off balance enough for Trini and Kimberly to follow behind and landing hits of their own. Pirantishead teetered for a moment before finally losing its balance and falling off the lifeguard stand.

The monster slowly pushed itself up, the sand below it not helping with its stability. "I'll make you pay for that, Power Brats!"

Harry just smirked as the monster finally regained its feet in time to see the Magi Ranger with his staff glowing brightly. "I'm in the mood for a fish fry!" Harry shouted before jabbing the Magi Staff up into the air over his head. From the end of the staff, a bolt of Grid powered lightning arced upwards before turning and racing toward the off balance fish monster.

The bolt cut through the air in a millisecond, letting out a crack of thunder that partially deafened the Rangers, and struck the monster, causing yet another explosion that kicked up a cloud of sand and smoke. As the smoke cleared, the regrouped Rangers were surprised to see that the monster was once more on its feet. Harry was at least happy to see that it hadn't recovered enough to attack again after what should have been a finishing move, but was still rather irked that it only looked slightly more scorched than before.

"Woah…" Pirantishead slurred, its hands on either side of its head as it staggered around, the chain weapon on the ground at its feet. "That was a rush…"

Then, Harry felt a rush of Power, only the slightest of a sensation, but enough to register. At the same moment, the Rangers' communicators activated again. "Rangers!" Zordon's voice came through clearly. "Back away, quickly!"

Taking their mentor's words to heart, five Rangers immediately leapt back while Harry twisted on the spot and apparated a short distance away where the others landed shortly afterward. They then saw a small mote of light come flying down from the sky above only to be caught by Pirantishead. The light faded to show some kind of grey spherical object that the monster yanked something off of before jamming it into the ground at its feet, causing an immense explosion followed by a billowing cloud of smoke.

"So…" Kimberly spoke, sounding uncertain. "Did it… did it destroy itself?"

"I dunno…" Zack said, just as unsure.

Harry just blinked. When the monster had smashed whatever Zedd had sent it, for there was no doubt as to the origin of the sphere, he had felt a massive surge of Power in the form of a spell. A spell that was very familiar by this point yet still took him a few moments to place because of the difference in delivery.

Finally, it clicked. "Guys, Dinozords, now!"

"What?" Jason asked, turning to face Harry. "Why do we need the Zords? The monster just exploded."

"Bwahahahahaha!" Pirantishead's voice echoed out from overhead, deeper and louder than before. "Where are you little Power Rangers? We're about to start the next part of our game!"

"Oh…" Jason said quietly. "Ok, so not exploded. Let's do it guys!"

"RIGHT!"

"We need Dinozord Power, now!"

"I call upon the Silver Owl Zord, HEDWIG!"

Hedwig appeared in the familiar flash of light and Harry immediately apparated to a place atop her head and began gathering more Power. – _Harry/Wizard ,-_ Hedwig sent, - _This Fishy-Thing feels different from other enemies. Is made by new enemy?_ -

Harry nodded, though he knew Hedwig wouldn't see. "Yeah, Hedwig. This is Zedd's first try at Angel Grove. Nothing we've done so far has been able to do more than the barest hint of damage. Even the Power Blaster wasn't enough to destroy it!"

Hedwig clacked her beak for a moment as the two soared over the now arriving Dinozords even as streaks of light indicated the Rangers teleporting into them. – _Thick skin only means you have to work harder to get at the softer insides, Harry/Wizard._ -

Harry chuckled for a moment at Hedwig's simple logic before nodding. "Then let's let him have it, Hedwig, Magi Ranger style!" With a short grunt, Harry brought his staff down onto the top of Hedwig's dome head where the Resurrection Stone was housed. "Begin Silver Owl Warrior Mode Transformation Sequence!"

Damn if the Grid wasn't messing with him big time today…

All the same, Harry felt himself sink down into the dome, becoming one with his familiar/Zord even as she shifted form into something more comfortable for him to inhabit. By the time the Warrior Mode had been fully formed, they stood next to the Mighty Morphin Megazord, Power Sword in hand, and faced off against Pirantishead.

"Oh boy!" The monster cheered, brandishing its now Giant chain weapon by the two metallic looking fish at either end. "I get to tear open the hard shells to get at the juicy Power Rangers inside! All the more tasty for the work!"

"Alright guys," Jason's voice echoed through Harry's head. "Let's take this guy down!"

Before the others could chime in with their grid guided response (again), Harry spoke up, directing his voice inward though so as to avoid speaking aloud and tipping off the monster, only sending his words to the other Rangers through their communicators. "Keep in mind, Jason, that we're still in the park. We don't know how many people are around here still, so we need to get this guy out to the outskirts before we really lay into it."

"Dammit," Jason cursed. "You're right, Harry. Any ideas?"

Harry smirked, an expression that was reflected on the mechanical face he now wore. "I might have a few…" This last bit Harry spoke aloud even as the feather cape on his back split into a pair of wings again, the turbines in them already picking up speed.

The monster heard Harry's words and expressed its confusion. "You might have a few what? Are you losing your mind, Magi Ranger? Am I really that frightening?"

"Something like that, I'm sure." Harry replied before leaping up into the air and flapping his wings, quickly transferring into flight. For a brief moment, Harry relished the ability to fly under his own power (technically), but quickly shook the feeling off as he reoriented on the monster, now looking back and forth between the airborne Harry hovering high overhead and the still unmoving Megazord.

With a burst of Power, Harry shot forward, folding his wings and turning his hover into a dive that had him quickly gaining speed. Before the monster could react, Harry flared his wings again, leveling out with his speed intact and latching onto the monster with his clawed hands, jerking it off its feet and up into the air just high enough for Harry to deliver an aerial spin kick and launch it outside of the park's border and into the undeveloped land beyond.

"Nice job, Harry." Jason congratulated him as the Megazord stomped after the monster. "Now let's take him down. Since nothing we tried earlier other than finisher level stuff even scratched him before, I suggest we try the same now."

Harry was momentarily surprised at Jason making such a suggestion, but quickly went along with it. "Right behind you Jason. I'll lead if you don't mind."

"Got it, Harry. Alright guys, let's power UP!"

"RIGHT!"

Harry internally rolled his eyes again as he landed a short distance away from the Pirantishead monster, gathering Power within him once again as the monster struggled to its feet. "I'm gonna make you pay for that, bird brain!" The monster shouted, its voice far less amused now than it had been thus far.

"Let's see how you stand up to this!" Harry shouted, Hedwig's voice providing an eerie echo as she joined Harry's controlling consciousness for their finisher. Moving smoothly, they hunched over slightly as their wings spread wide, glistening with gathered Power that drifted up to form the image of a crescent moon behind them. With arms spread to either side, the claws on their hands began glowing with Power as well before the Silver Owl Warrior Mode shot forward in the blink of an eye with a burst of Power.

Only for Pirantishead to catch their first attempt at a clawed slash with its bare hand.

Harry/Hedwig let out a startled squawk as their synchronization failed, letting the Moonlit Claw Slash fade. Harry found himself too startled to react as the monster used its chain to restrain his free arm before spinning him around in its grip, the slightly taller monster holding him hostage as the Megazord came into view, the Power Sword glowing as it approached.

"I think I'm through playing with you now, puny Rangers! Lord Zedd has given me strict orders and I'll follow them to the letter!"

"HARRY!" Trini's shout echoed through Harry's head, making him wince a bit internally before replying.

"I'm alright," He said, again privately. "You know, aside from the being trapped thing. Be careful, this fish is also a lot faster than we gave him credit for."

"Can you get free?" Jason asked next, prompting Harry to try and break the monster's grip.

"Oh, no you don't," Pirantishead chastised, levering Harry's chained arm around behind him before doing the same with the one still held tightly in the fish monster's hand. The monster's strength was far beyond Harry's and the Magi Ranger/Warrior Mode Zord quickly found his arms entangled behind his back, the chain on the monster's weapon somehow stretching to have enough length to do so.

"Ah…" Harry said slowly, quite stunned at how fast the monster had managed to restrain him. "Yeah, that would be a no…" He hadn't really even had a chance to react before his arms were fully chained, and now the monster even had a hand free that it didn't before.

"No, no, no," the monster taunted as it brandished one of the fish attached to its chain in its now free right hand. "I don't think so little Rangers."

Thinking fast, Harry sent another message to the Rangers. "Guys, he hasn't done anything to restrain my legs. What I want you to do is come at him with the Power Sword. He'll probably move me like a shield, but if I drop my weight at the last second, and you guys aim right…"

"Then we'll be able to nail him with the Power Sword!" Zack cheered.

"And probably get you free again!" Trini continued.

Jason hummed for a moment. "I don't like it… It's risky… But it might be our only chance… Let's do it Rangers!"

Harry watched as the glow on the Power Sword faded slightly, enough that it wasn't quite at finisher level, but not so much that it wouldn't hurt if this didn't work right. Then, the Megazord started stomping forward.

Pirantishead was not impressed. "What do you think you're doing, Rangers. I have your friend here and I won't hesitate to use him…" When the Megazord didn't falter in its charge, the fish monster just shrugged. "Oh well, guess I'm moving things up a bit then."

Harry could only watch from the corner of his eye as the monster brought the fish from its chain up to its mouth and began working his fingers like he was playing a flute. What came from it was not music, however. Instead, from the monster's mouth came a blast of white energy that hit the unprepared Megazord in the chest and washed over it, giving it a white aura that seemed to blur it a bit to Harry's sight.

Then the other Rangers started panicking.

"What's going on?" Jason shouted. "The Megazord won't move!"

"Jason," Billy was next to speak. "I'm getting nothing from the diagnostic systems. Nothing appears to be wrong, but the controls aren't responding either."

"Nothing from reserve power either." Trini said.

When Kimberly and Zack reported their own lack of an explanation, followed by the Pirantishead starting to laugh, Harry began to really worry.

"It's all over now, Power Pests!" the monster taunted before giving Harry a shove and knocking him to his stomach, his arms still chained behind his back.

Harry managed to roll onto his side in time to see the fish monster standing next to the Megazord and patting it on the shoulder. "My new buddy and I are gonna have some fun terrorizing the city now, aren't we? And we're gonna start by destroying the bird brained Magi Ranger!"

Harry managed to get his legs back under him, rising up to his knees just as the Megazord, still with that strange white glow, turned to face him with the Power Sword once more at full Power.

"Jason, what do we do?!" Kimberly shouted.

Jason grunted a few times. "I don't know! I can't… move… the controls! The Megazord isn't responding to me anymore!"

Harry watched as the Megazord, weapon of the Mighty Morphin Power Rangers stomped closer to him and raised the Power Sword up into the air. He watched as the Zord's eyes began rapidly pulsing with Power before it brought the sword down and his world went white.

"HARRY!"

-MR-

AN: So yeah, hope you enjoyed and all that. 7800 words of story isn't too bad for a return, yeah?

Yes, yes, I know Zedd didn't actually announce himself like that. In fact, I'm convinced that the only reason the public of Angel Grove knew that Rita wasn't the big bad anymore was because every monster seemed to spout off Zedd's name at the drop of a hat. But when I think back, I remember him doing this for some reason. I know now that he only appeared as an image to Rita and the crew on the moon, but I liked the way it presented itself. And besides, it kinda fits with Zedd's character. Go big or go home, ya know?

Also, Zedd somehow finding a piranha in a lake near a city in California makes no sense to me. So I had the monster get created from a pet some guy had in a tank in his house. : )

Just a heads up, I'm not really sure how the update schedule is going to go now. I want to try and stick to my every-other-Sunday deal that I had been using, but I just don't know if that's feasible for me anymore. You see, I was unemployed when I wrote the first 39 chapters. Now that I have a job, my free time has been greatly curtailed. I just don't know if I have the available time to keep up that schedule while still keeping up with the work that has to be done here at home on my limited days off work. I suppose we'll just have to see for now. I'll update you all when I figure it out myself.

Just for fun, here are my top five problems with Season 2 after re-watching it as an adult:

The corniness level was cranked up to 11. In an effort to use as much of the Zyu 2 footage as possible, the writers of MMPR were forced to create a lot more out of suit footage. As a result, we get more bad jokes, poor choreography, and random events that make little to no sense just so they could fill out their entire time slot for the episode. This phenomenon only got worse as the season continued, especially after the Power Transfer stuff happened. Many leaps of logic were made by the characters that made little sense if any and it was largely just painful to watch.

Rita adds absolutely NOTHING to the Season even after her full on return. She makes a brief cameo in an earlier episode, but that's not what I'm talking about. Aside from one episode after potioning Zedd where Rita's plot allows for Goldar to steal Saba from Tommy, thus allowing Rita to control the Tigerzord… somehow… Rita's only real purpose in the show seems to be as comic relief. I know there was some outcry from concerned parents about Zedd being a bit too evil early on, but things went a bit too far into the goofy side if you ask me.

Unsatisfying battles and poor flow therein. You could always tell where the monster came from as far as source material went within a few moments of the fight starting. If the Rangers appeared onscreen with the monster at the same time, then it was likely Zyu 2, unless White Ranger was included, at which point it was probably American footage and therefore much harder to guess the origin. If the Rangers fought putties while the monster taunted them, then it was from Dairanger and we would usually get at least a somewhat satisfying, if typically super short, Zord battle. This little game of "Guess Where it's From!" was fun for a bit, but it got very disappointing by the last episode. The entire thing just made every battle choppy, though I did chuckle a bit when I recognized a scene in the final episode wherein the monster, Vace Face, gets electro zapped by the Thunder Megazord as the same scene used for the Thunder Megazord electro Zapping Pirantishead in the third episode. Hidden by sparks, but distinctly NOT a fish.

Zedd's many monsters. One of Zedd's gimmicks, especially in the latter half of the Season, was sending more than a single monster after the Rangers at once. The only problem I had is that he sent the same bunch of monsters after them nearly every freaking time! Now I know that this is because those are (mostly) the suits that Saban had from the creation of the Zyu 2 footage, but it was still annoying. Somehow I can't build up any enthusiasm at seeing the Rangers fight the Invenusable Flytrap, Grumblebee, Peckster, Snizard, Dramole, Rhynoblaster, Soccadillo, Robogoat, etc. after the second or third time, much less even more than that… I guess what I'm saying here is that what could have been an interesting concept was turned into a farce by the overuse of the same monsters.

The Power Transfer. Yeah, I know the reasons behind it happening, pay dispute and all that, but it really should have been handled better. I get that Saban was letting the actors know that they weren't irreplaceable, and that the writers were basically told that the changes to the script needed to be made yesterday, but the voice actors brought in for the in suit scenes of Jason, Zack, and Trini didn't even really seem to be trying. Heck there were a few scenes where Jason or Zack, in suit of course, were bobbing their heads as if they were talking, but nothing was said (Episode 10: Welcome to Venus Island if you're curious). I actually backed up the video and rewatched it a few times just to make sure it wasn't a bug or something. And then there were the times they had physical doubles of the three for out of suit scenes, even though they never showed their faces, they weren't even terribly close to looking like them, outside of wardrobe and Zack's hair. Heck, even the hair was questionable since he changed the style in the second season and the double looked more like season 1 to the best of my memory. And then we get to the terrible excuses for why we don't see them until they teleport into battle already morphed. Oh, Jason, Zack, and Trini are off babysitting a bunch of kids and can't get away just yet. Oh, I already called them and they'll meet us there. Oh, Jason, Zack, and Trini got frozen/hypnotized/exploded by the monster by stupidly running up to it and just standing there and waiting for it to attack, I guess you're on your own until Alpha's technobabble thingamajig gets done. Seriously, I developed a bit of an affection for Trini and Zack after how I've written them in Magi Ranger (Jason not so much so as I'm sure you can imagine), and seeing them being treated like that in canon just irked me. And then there's the way the three replacements basically stepped into their lives like nothing had happened. Several times in later episodes we hear Kimberly talking as if she and Aisha had been friends for years as opposed to a few months at most. *sigh*

Random sidenote of randomness. I was reading a Harry Potter fic (Monsterous by The Mad Mad Reviewer. Check it out, it's rather interesting) recently when I came across a scene where Sirius, freshly proven innocent of the crimes he was imprisoned for as in many fics, spoke with Hagrid who was very awkward and apologetic about taking Harry to Dumbles the night the Potters were killed. I realized at that moment that in all the Harry Potter fanfiction I had ever read, that was the first time I had seen such a scene. It just struck me as odd.

Anyway, let me know what you think of this, my return to the world of Fanfiction and Magi Ranger.

Also, Merry Christmas to all, and may the Power protect you.

Thanks for reading and don't forget to review,

Tenstar12


	41. Chapter 41

Magi Ranger

By: Tenstar12

AN: Shout out to TM11 for leaving Magi Ranger's 700th review!

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or Power Rangers.

 **Chapter 41, in Which the Putties Get A Makeover...**

When color returned to Harry's world, he found himself surrounded by the wonderfully familiar surroundings of the Command Center. Frantically patting himself down as his brain processed his location, Harry was relieved to discover that he was in once piece and appeared to be in no pain, though he was lying prone on the floor.

So what had happened?

It was with a jolt that Harry realized that the other five Rangers were nearby, the six of them having been lying in the ring of computers at the center of the Command Center still in morph. Said jolt coming when Trini all out tackled him once she noticed him.

"HARRY!" the Yellow Ranger spoke frantically, her arms wrapped tightly around his neck. "I was so worried when you got caught! And then we lost control of the Megazord and you were about to get hit and then… what happened?"

Trini's last words were spoken with a heavy air of confusion as she finally overcame her hysteria and spoke the question that was on all their minds. It was a question that Zordon was quick to answer as the Rangers climbed back to their feet and removed their helmets, though Trini made sure to keep close to Harry's side after her scare.

Not that Harry was complaining of course.

"It is good to see you all up and about again, Rangers." Zordon intoned solemnly. Just from the sound of his mentor's voice, Harry could tell that the overall news wasn't good. "Alpha and I were barely able to get you all to safety before the Megazord's attack connected. If we had been a second longer, it might have been too late."

"So you teleported us back here, Zordon?" Jason asked as he stepped forward as per the norm.

The floating head nodded. "Yes, Jason. We were able to retrieve the six of you and Hedwig just in time." Zordon turned slightly in his tube to more fully face Harry. "Hedwig is fine at the moment, Harry, if a bit shaken up by the outcome of the battle, but we were unable to regain control of the Megazord."

"Yeah, man," Zack said with a shudder. "I never would have expected the Megazord to turn on us like that… What happened?"

"And were you able to recover the Megazord the same way you did with Harry and Hedwig?" Billy quickly followed.

"Behold the Viewing Globe," Zordon responded, nodding toward the orb as he did so. When the Rangers had all turned to face it, it lit up from within. This time, the orb showed the Pirantishead monster during their earlier battle with Harry/Hedwig held captive and working its fish-ended weapon like a flute. As the Rangers watched, the white beam lanced forth and washed over the Megazord, distorting it as Harry remembered.

"From what Alpha and I have been able to deduce based on our still limited sensor readings, the attack the monster launched disrupted the controls of the Megazord and slaved it to Pirantishead's will. In addition, whatever was done to the Megazord was somehow able to prevent us from retrieving it."

"We're still working on the sensor upgrades," Alpha added from where he stood behind one of the computer consoles, the odd tool in his hand lending support to his statement. "Unfortunately, until those are done, we can't tell a great deal about the how of the situation, only the what. Ai yai yai…" Alpha resorted to mumbling as he ducked back behind the computer and out of sight as the Rangers turned their attention back to Zordon.

"Alpha speaks truly, Rangers. For the time being, we can only wait."

"What do you mean wait?" Jason asked, sounding rather upset with Zordon. "Even as we speak the Megazord is out there destroying the city. We have to do something!"

Zordon shook his head. "All hope is not lost yet, Rangers. I do have a plan in the works to overcome this latest obstacle, but it requires time and information before it can be successfully implemented. And the Megazord is not, in fact, attacking the city." Without more than a nod as prompting, the Rangers turned back toward the Viewing Globe which lit up again to show the Megazord standing motionless on the outskirts of the city, in the same location as where the Rangers had fought against, and lost to, Pirantishead.

Zordon continued. "In the hour since the battle ended, during which time you were all rendered unconscious by the emergency teleportation, the Megazord has remained where it is now. Pirantishead returned to its original size, but we have since lost track of it."

Kimberly sighed as the Rangers turned to face Zordon again. "So I guess all we really can do is wait then, huh?"

Zordon nodded, a grim smile on his face. "Unfortunately so, Kimberly. What we need is time, and it is something that I feel we will have, despite how dire the situation is."

"What do you mean?" Trini asked.

"From what I know of Lord Zedd, he is one who enjoys grandiose statements and undeniable examples of his superiority. His ego is very large and he takes every opportunity to revel in his victories. What this means is that he is fond of larger, drawn out schemes. While he is in no way someone to take lightly, Zedd's propensity for these types of plans means that he will often avoid striking the final blow to prolong the suffering of his opposition. I hope to use this tendency to give us the time to prepare our counterstrike."

"But if he has control of the Megazord, how can we face off against his monster?" Harry asked. "I mean, I'm willing to fight no matter what, but I doubt that Hedwig and I can take down Pirantishead _and_ the Megazord at the same time…"

Before Zordon could respond, Jason perked up suddenly. "Hey! What about Tommy's Power Coin? Is there any way one of us could use it to call the Dragonzord to fight alongside Harry? That would definitely even the odds!"

The other Rangers immediately started nodding, hope growing in their eyes, only for Zordon to shut them down. "Unfortunately not, Jason. The Green Power is too heavily depleted to summon the Dragonzord, even with amplification from another Power Coin. The drain happened too recently for that to be truly feasible. And even if it were to be possible, it is highly likely that the Dragonzord would be taken from us much like the Megazord already has. It should not be necessary in the long run, however. Lord Zedd chose a rather opportune moment to attack since I had been gathering Power to aid in the assault on Rita's fortress. This same Power can now give us the edge we will need to fight off Zedd in Rita's place."

"How do you mean, Zordon?" Billy asked.

Zordon merely shook his head. "I do not wish to speak of it yet, Billy. I would prefer to wait until I know that it can be done, which means waiting for Alpha to finish the sensor enhancements. However, any help that you or Trini can give him would be greatly appreciated."

With a firm nod, the teenage genius quickly set his helmet aside and made his way to where Alpha was working to try and see how he could help. Trini gave Harry a quick, one armed hug before following, setting her helmet with Billy's atop one of the computers before crouching down on the robot's other side.

Harry then turned his attention back to Zordon as the other Rangers moved to set their own helmets with Trini and Billy's (in a row and in their morphing order Harry noticed with an internal groan of exasperation). "I have a question for you, Zordon. When this battle gets to the point of me calling in Hedwig again, how worried should I be about Pirantishead taking control of her too?" The question immediately caught the attention of the others. Even Alpha looked up from his work for a moment upon hearing Harry's words.

Zordon hummed in thought for a moment before speaking. "I… cannot say for sure, Harry. I would assume that, as Hedwig is fully sentient whereas the Dinozords are not, she would be able to fight off any attempts should her will be strong enough." Harry nearly snorted in amusement, Hedwig was too stubborn to let anyone take control of her.

- _And don't you forget it Harry/Wizard!_ \- Hedwig's mental voice said smugly, forcing Harry to fight down a smile. All the same, hearing Hedwig reassured him as Zordon's words hadn't been able to as to his familiar's safety.

Zordon continued, unaware of Harry's background musings. "Additionally, I believe that Zedd, and thus Pirantishead, knew of this and most likely of your fusion with Hedwig to create your Warrior Mode, which would only add another layer of protection against Pirantishead taking control of your Zord. This would explain why no attempt to do so was made, instead using you as bait to get the Megazord."

"But how would Zedd have found out about… well, anything about us?" Jason asked, crossing his arms as he spoke.

"I suspect that not all of Rita's forces were cast out with her." Zordon explained. "It is most likely that Goldar retains his loyalty to Zedd over that which he had for Rita. I feel that he would tell Zedd anything he wanted to know about all of you."

Zack gave a short snort of almost-laughter. "Yeah, and with the way that gold monkey has it out for Harry, he probably made extra sure to tell the new boss all about him."

Harry groaned. "Thanks, Zack. That's just what I needed to hear…"

-MR-

No matter how many times Harry found himself spending long periods of time waiting in the Command Center for something to happen, it never got any easier.

Although that certainly didn't mean that the alarm klaxons that went off a mere twenty minutes after the Rangers awoke were any more welcome than usual.

Without prompting, the Rangers turned to face the Viewing Globe as it lit up from within, Billy and Trini coming from where they had been helping Alpha, showing Pirantishead seemingly dancing in place as it idly twirled its chain weapon in one hand.

"Oh man," Zack spoke first, running his hands through his short hair. "What's this guy up to now?"

"I'm afraid it's not just Pirantishead this time, Rangers." Zordon said as the image in the globe flickered. "It seems that Lord Zedd has sent down some of his own Putty Patrollers as well."

The new image that formed in the Globe showed what appeared to be a putty patroller, but certainly not one Harry was familiar with. The figure's body was much closer to white than Rita's putties had been, only the hands and face retaining the dark grey color of its predecessors. In addition, the construct seemed to be wearing elbow pads, knee pads, and a vest, each perhaps a shade or two darker than the rest of its body and all with a "Z" emblem on them, especially prominent on the vest.

"Well…" Harry said after a moment. "They certainly don't look like much, do they?"

When the other Rangers gave a half-hearted murmur of agreement, Zordon interjected. "Don't let their appearances fool you, Rangers. Our initial scans indicate that Zedd created these putties himself, so there is no telling what kind of surprises they might have in store during battle."

"So where are these guys at?" Jason asked, once more leading the team as he turned back to face Zordon.

This time it was Alpha who answered. "The sensors, limited as they are, indicate that the monster and putties have appeared north of Angel Grove… They appear to be near a large concentration of people…"

Kimberly gasped suddenly. "Oh no you guys! The Marathon!"

Harry's eyes narrowed in thought before it came to him. A few days into their week of preparation, Ernie had hung up posters in the Youth Center advertising the "Fifth Annual Children's Hospital Charity Motor Marathon." It was, as the name suggested, a charity event where teams of people entered into a race on four wheelers. Far from a simple race, each team was given a map that they had to follow to collect various tokens which would keep them more or less on the not very clearly marked course. The ultimate goal was to be the first team to cross the finish line with all the tokens. Admission costs for those who wanted to watch the event were donated to a local Children's Hospital, again as the name suggested.

Shortly after the posters went up, The Ranger team had floated the idea of entering the race themselves. After all, there was no limit to the size of the team and who would be able to beat the Rangers' teamwork? The officials in charge even provided the bikes and equipment, so why not, right?

Unfortunately, Harry had had to point out that they were gearing up for a huge battle and it wasn't the best idea to take on other distractions in the meantime.

Not to mention that Harry didn't really know how to ride a four wheeler…

Ultimately, the Rangers all agreed with Harry, though not without any complaints and talk of what-ifs. Now it seemed as though the Rangers may end up going there after all.

"I fear you may be right, Kimberly." Zordon said after a moment's thought. "It is likely that Zedd is trying to draw you out again by attacking the civilians there."

"Well," Jason said with a grim smile. "We don't want to keep him waiting then, do we?"

"But how are we going to fight the monster?" Trini asked, once more standing next to Harry. "We weren't really able to hurt it before."

"And what about the Megazord?" Kimberly asked. "And Zordon's plan?"

"The plan still relies on the completion of the sensor upgrades, Rangers." Zordon replied. "For now, your priority must be with protecting the people of Angel Grove."

"Then shouldn't Billy and Trini stay behind to help finish the upgrades?" Jason asked. "I'm sure the four of us can handle some putties and Pirantishead on our own."

Zordon shook his head. "I'm afraid that that may not be advisable, Jason. As a team, you are strongest when you work together. Even Harry, although his Power doesn't explicitly mesh with yours, is more capable when you all work together. We cannot afford to take any of Lord Zedd's creations lightly."

"And besides that," Alpha added. "The sensor upgrades are very nearly complete. I can finish the rest myself with no problem."

The Rangers and Harry all exchanged glances for a moment before Jason finally nodded. "Alright then, Rangers, let's go protect our city."

"Back to Action!"

-MR-

When the light of teleportation faded from around the Rangers, they were met with the sounds of panicked screaming. The source of this screaming was quickly located as they caught sight of Bulk and Skull, standing next to their four wheelers (though why the two had gotten off of them, or really even joined a charity event in the first place Harry wasn't entirely sure) and clinging to each other tightly while a dozen of Zedd's new-model Putty Patrollers bounced and jerked around them.

"Alright, Rangers," Jason barked while gesturing toward the putties. "Let's take these guys down and save the civilians!"

"Right!"

It was about this time that the putties on the far side of the group noticed the Rangers, probably helped by Jason's shout. The putties in question made several of their typical noises, though noticeably deeper in tone than Rita's, and the entire group turned to face the Rangers almost as one.

Seeing their attackers distracted, Bulk and Skull looked up, their screams dying off slowly as they caught sight of the Rangers as well. "Look, Bulky! It's the Power Rangers!"

"The Power Rangers!" Bulk seemed especially awed, a far cry from his irritation at the Power Ranger Day Festival when the two had been upstaged by the Rangers' mere presence.

Before any more pondering could be done, the Putties charged, two of those behind Bulk and Skull leaping high into the air to get over them and sending them into a panic again. Without any hesitation, Harry and Trini leapt into the air, the overabundance of Power within him helping keep him in sync with his girlfriend, and met two of the flying putties with kicks that knocked them off balance and sent them tumbling through the air.

When the two Rangers landed again, it was in the middle of a melee between the putties that had stayed on the ground and the other four Rangers. Harry immediately lashed out with a fist, landing a solid punch to the face of a putty that was caught off guard by his sudden landing. While that one went stumbling backwards, Harry delivered a side-kick to another as it turned to face him, knocking it back similarly as the blow caught it in the stomach.

The battle after that faded down to an instinctual level for Harry due to the excess of Power within him. Harry ducked under a flying kick from one putty, using his new position to sweep the feet out from under another that was charging him. As that one went down, Harry turned back to the first just in time to cross his arms and block a punch that had him sliding back a few inches from the strength behind it. "Is it just me," Harry shouted as he grabbed the putty's outstretched arm and flipped it over his shoulder and onto its downed comrade. "Or do these putties hit a lot harder than the older models?"

"Yeah, no kidding," Zack answered, delivering a quick series of kicks to one putty before stumbling as another hit him from behind. The Black Ranger quickly recovered however, using the forward momentum to dive and roll over his original target and turning back to face the putties as he returned to a fighting stance. "And what does it take to keep them down?"

Zack wasn't just joking around. In the time it had taken him to recover from his dive, the first putty he had attacked had regained its footing and was approaching him with the second one. Similarly, the two putties that Harry had knocked down and into each other were both on their feet again and once more approaching the Magi Ranger.

It was the same with each Ranger in fact. No matter what they tried, from various different fighting techniques to pulling their blade blasters in either mode, the putties just kept getting back up. Harry, having had enough of doing things the physical way, even summoned up the Magi Staff and hit one with a stunner before turning and launching another into the air with a reducto.

They were both back on their feet within seconds and charging back into battle.

"Is it just me," Kimberly panted as she, Trini, and Harry found themselves back to back and surrounded by a half dozen putties. "Or are you guys missing the old putties too?"

Before any of them could answer, a strange whirring sound came from off to one side. The sound was changing swiftly, going from fairly low in pitch to a fair bit higher and accompanied by what sounded vaguely like static. Finally, it cut off suddenly with a sound like cracking stone and quickly followed by a cry of success from Jason.

"Guys!" Jason shouted immediately. "I've figure it out, you have to aim for the Z on their chests!"

Harry blinked behind his helmet. "It… it can't really be that easy, can it?"

When the girls offered no comment, Harry shrugged and leapt toward two of the putties surrounding them. He twirled the Magi Staff around briefly before using the bars at the top to hook the back of one putty's knee, sending it down to the ground even as he lashed out a kick and staggered the other backward. Then, with a grunt of effort, Harry brought the Magi Staff around again and jammed the butt of the staff into the "Z" on the first putty's chest.

The putty seemed to seize up before the "Z" began to glow white. The glow quickly spread to the rest of its body as the pitch shifted. Finally, with a similar cracking sound as Jason's target, the Putty broke apart violently, the pieces crumbling to dust as they flew away.

"Huh…" Harry said with a smirk as he turned to face the putty he had kicked away. "I guess it _can_ be that easy."

The Rangers returned to battle with a renewed vigor. Now that they knew where to aim, the putties weren't nearly as big of a problem to defeat and they began dropping like flies one by one.

Leading with a horizontal aerial strike with his staff, Harry smacked a pair of putties across the face, knocking them off their feet even as he landed on his own. Then, with an almost casual wave of his hand, he levitated a pair of fist sized stones into the air above the two before lowering his arm quickly. The magical boost he gave the two rocks as they fell delivered enough force that it caused the two putties to break down immediately, leaving the Magi Ranger to turn to find his next target, only to find that the other Rangers had already dealt with them.

"Well…" Trini said, still panting slightly as they regrouped. "That was kind of anticlimactic…"

"Though it was nice of Zedd to give his putties a convenient self-destruct button like that huh?" Kimberly said next, a hint of giggle in her voice.

Then the Rangers heard cheers and turned back toward Bulk and Skull, who had taken shelter during the battle behind their four wheelers. "Are you two alright over there?" Jason shouted making the two bullies jump in surprise, probably at being addressed by one of the Rangers directly.

"Oh yeah," Bulk said with a faux calm, seemingly attempting to brush off their near death experience as the adjusted his jacket and helmet. "We're good over here."

Skull seemed incapable of speech at the moment, settling instead for a large, awkward looking smile and a thumbs up.

"You might be for now, but that won't last long!" Bulk and Skull's faces shifted into looks of fear even as the Rangers spun around to face Pirantishead as the monster strolled toward them, twirling its chain weapon in its right hand while the left held one of the fish ends.

"You two get out of here!" Jason shouted over his shoulder even as he and the other core Rangers summoned their weapons and brandished them. Harry kept his eyes on the monster as he heard the engines of the bullies' four wheelers rev up behind him.

"Oh no," Pirantishead said in its typical mocking tone. "I don't think I'm done with you two yet! HA HA!" With the last exclamation, the monster raised its left hand and the fish in it to its mouth before once more working it like it was playing a flute.

"Look out!" Jason shouted, tensing himself as he did. "It's gonna fire!"

It wasn't until too late that the Rangers realized that the monster's target was really Bulk and Skull, or more specifically, their four wheelers. Harry could only groan as the familiar, off-white glow overtook the two bikes as Bulk and Skull's screams became loud enough to overcome the sound of the engines.

"Shit!" Jason cursed before shooting a glance Harry's way. "Harry, take care of those two. We'll hold off the monster."

Harry was going to object, but then realized that he was probably the only one who could catch up to them. The Rangers didn't have any vehicles other than their Zords after all, and those were temporarily (they hoped) out of reach. So the Magi Ranger merely nodded before twisting in place and apparating away, reappearing a heartbeat later a short distance away from the two out of control bikes.

After a moment of thought, Harry jabbed the Magi Staff forward, casting a levitation spell that caught the two teens and lifted them off the bikes, slowing their forward momentum before setting them safely on the ground at Harry's side. It took the two a few moments to realize that they were no longer on the runaway machines, and only moments longer to clamber back to their feet again, once more assuming the nonchalant air they had been using before Pirantishead showed up.

The bikes however, continued on without their riders before executing a wide turn and racing back towards them. Harry, seeing this, ignored Bulk and Skull's once more renewed screams and fired off a quick pair of reductor curses, blasting the bikes into scrap metal before they could get anywhere near hitting anyone.

For some reason, this seemed to make Bulk angry as the bully grabbed Harry by his shoulder and spun the Magi Ranger around to face him. "Hey! Those were our bikes!"

"Yeah, our bikes!" Skull parroted, apparently regaining the ability to speak now that the immediate crisis seemed to be over.

"How are we supposed to win the race now?" Bulk continued, seemingly ignoring the fact that Harry had just saved their lives.

"Is that really what you guys want to talk about now?" Harry asked after fighting down to urge to transfigure the pair into something unpleasant. "You want to complain about me blasting the bikes that were being controlled by a monster and were trying to run you over? Not, I don't know, thank me or something?"

"That doesn't help us win the race!" Bulk shouted again, leaning close to Harry's helmet and beginning to turn colors much like his Uncle Vernon once did.

Now there was a scary thought.

Harry took a step backward and shook his head. "I don't have time for this. Look, mate, I'm sorry about the bikes, but I have bigger things to worry about now. Like, you know, the big fish monster the other Rangers are fighting right now. The one that tried to kill you guys a few moments ago."

This seemed to take the wind out of Bulk's sails as he went very pale very quickly. "Uh… heh…" The teen seemed to realize that he had just been screaming into the face of one of the Power Rangers as he stumbled back to stand next to Skull again. "I, uh… I don't suppose you could give us a ride back to the city, could you?"

Harry groaned briefly before levitating a rock from the ground and tapping it with his staff, making it glow blue before sending it drifting toward Bulk and Skull. "Here, grab hold of the rock and it'll take you back to town."

Bulk glanced at him incredulously. "A rock? How in the heck is a rock gonna-"

Bulk's words were cut off as Harry, already fed up with the two, banished the rock into his stomach and magically pulled Skull over at the same time. The result was the portkey rock being sandwiched between the two and them vanishing a heartbeat later.

"Now, back to the battle. I hope everyone is alright." Before Harry could apparate back, the ground started shaking beneath him. Looking back toward the battle, Harry could see the Megazord stomping closer, apparently having been called into battle by Zedd.

Then his communicator went off. "Harry," Zordon's voice echoed from his wrist. "Return to the Command Center."

"But, Zordon." He answered, his eyes not leaving the Megazord. "What about the others."

"They are falling back as well. You have all done as much as you can without putting yourselves at greater risk. The situation has been dealt with for the moment and we must regroup and discuss our options."

Harry sighed. "Alright, Zordon. Teleporting now."

-MR-

Harry reappeared in the Command Center to find the other Rangers already there with their helmets once more removed and placed, again in order, on one of the computer consoles.

"How did everything go with Bulk and Skull?" Zack asked, a smirk on his face even as Harry removed his helmet and gave him a glare.

"Well enough. Sent them on a portkey trip back to the Youth Center." The Magi Ranger responded with a shrug, placing his helmet next to the others as he did so.

Kimberly snorted. "Bet they enjoyed that."

"It is good to see you all back successfully, Rangers." Zordon spoke up, cutting off any further joking at the bullies' expense. "We have news for you."

"Yes," Alpha said, sounding more excited than normal. "I finished recalibrating and upgrading our sensors, and we were able to fully analyze Pirantishead and the Megazord while you were gone."

"Wow…" Harry said, surprise on his face. "That… that didn't take nearly as long as I had thought."

Ignoring Harry, Jason spoke next. "So what did you find out?"

"Pirantishead is a very powerful monster," Zordon started. "As you all already know, it is very difficult to damage it with your weapons as Lord Zedd has focused a great deal of its Power into its defenses."

"That makes sense," Billy hummed in thought. "With the majority of its Power put toward making it tougher, in addition to Zedd having more Power than Rita, it's only logical that we were unable to damage it."

"That is true, Billy," Zordon nodded. "But that is only half of it. While Pirantishead's offensive abilities are weaker than its defensive, they are nothing to ignore either. But its true power comes in its ability to control anything mechanical. It is with this power that it was able to take control of the Megazord and of Bulk and Skull's vehicles."

"Well that's good to know and all," Zack said as he stepped up next to Jason. "But how does knowing this help us beat him?"

"Yeah, Zordon," Kimberly said. "What about the plan you mentioned? You said you needed the sensors fixed before you could talk about it."

Zordon closed his eyes for a moment, seemingly in deep thought. The tension among the Rangers merely grew as the seconds passed until Zordon finally opened his eyes again and sighed before he spoke. "My plan, indeed the only option that I believe that we have at this point, is only possible because of Rita's actions that caused the Grid to turn against her as it did. It is only because of her extreme actions and subsequent failure that Lord Zedd was made aware of the situation on Earth and decided to intervene himself."

Zordon paused again. "The Grid has agreed to a renegotiation of the Mighty Morphin Powers. I will use the Power I stockpiled for the attack on Rita's palace to reenergize your Power Coins. Through the medium of your Zords, your Power will be increased so that you may more effectively battle Lord Zedd and his creations."

"That's awesome!" Zack shouted, near jumping in his exuberance. The other Rangers shared in his happiness, smiling both at Zack's reaction and the good news.

At least all the other Rangers besides Harry and Jason.

"You said you'd increase our Power through the Zords…" Jason started slowly but firmly, his voice cutting through the happiness of the others as his words registered. "How will that work with our Zords under Zedd's control?"

The jubilant atmosphere vanished completely in the wake of Jason's words. Zordon just sighed. "That is the main issue before us, Jason. In order to enhance the Mighty Morphin Powers, we must regain control of the Megazord."

"Well…" Kimberly said after a few moments. "How are we going to do that?"

Nobody had an answer for several moments until, finally, Alpha spoke up. "There… may be a way…" The robot was holding several sheets of paper, most likely a printout of some kind, and was holding it up to the front of his saucer shaped head.

"What have you found, Alpha?" Zordon asked quickly.

"According to the enhanced sensor readings, there is a specific frequency to the energy field controlling the Megazord." Alpha said, hesitating slightly before he continued. "It… may be possible… if we can disrupt the energy field, we may be able to regain control of the Megazord."

"And then give them the power up and whoop that fish's butt!" Zack said with a cheer.

Billy was quick to move over to Alpha's side, studying the paper over his shoulder. He hummed in thought for a moment. "I think that I can create a device to disrupt the wavelength. According to these readings, the field is actually quite weak, only barely enough to overwhelm the protections on the Megazord. It shouldn't take more than a brief burst from a negative electro-synthetic neutrino pulse to break Zedd's control."

Harry shot a quick glance to Trini, half-hoping for a translation, but she looked just as confused as he was. "So, I assume that means that you can make it work, right?"

Billy looked up at Harry and blinked a few times before nodding. "Yes, but isn't that what I just said?"

Harry just smiled and Billy went back to his studying of Alpha's data. Then, Trini spoke up. "Zordon, you said that you had a way to improve our Mighty Morphin' Powers, but what about Harry?"

"Yeah," Zack said, briefly pausing in his celebratory mini-dance to glance worriedly at the Magi Ranger. "Even if we'll be strong enough to take care of Zedd's new monsters, this one was too much for even Harry's magic. Does he get a power up too?"

Zordon smiled down at the Rangers. "Unfortunately, I cannot negotiate on Harry's behalf to improve his Powers, but it is largely unnecessary. Harry's Power is still growing every day as his own skill with Grid Magic grows."

"No offense, Zordon," Harry said slowly. "But what good is slow improvement going to do when the guys I'll be up against have gotten such a huge boost from Zedd?" He paused to collect his thoughts for a moment and Trini squeezed his hand in support. Shooting her a thankful smile, Harry turned his attention back to Zordon. "Like I said, I'm willing to fight, but I'd rather not go back to nearly getting killed every battle, just waiting for my Power to be enough to make me more of a match for my opponents."

Zordon's smile didn't falter. "Have you forgotten, Harry? Just as I was gathering and stockpiling Power, so too were you. While you cannot use this Power to upgrade what you already have, you are creating an entirely new branch of the Power. What this means is that one day in the future, there may be an entire team of individual Magi Rangers fighting against evil."

After a few moments, Kimberly spoke. "So does that mean that Harry is going to have more than one Zord?"

Zordon nodded. "That is exactly what it means, Kimberly." Turning his focus back to Harry, Zordon continued. "Harry, I have felt for some time that your Power was reaching a breaking point where your branch would have its next big development. The first was your morph, the second was your Zord, and I feel that the Power you have gathered has you approaching the third. When the time is right, put your trust in the Grid and let it guide you and I feel you will not be disappointed."

Harry nodded, his mind still turning this new information over in his head. He didn't really feel any different than normal, or at least what passed as normal for him lately, but if Zordon was right, and his gathered Power was enough to push him over the edge to the next level then it couldn't have come at a better time. He wasn't terribly surprised by that seeing as how things seemed to work out that way a lot when the Morphing Grid was involved, which only gave a certain validity to Zordon's theory, but he couldn't help but flash back to how helpless he had been against the strength and speed of Zedd's first monster.

He just hoped that whatever form this new development of his Power would take would be enough to make a difference.

-MR-

AN: I was watching a bit of Star Trek Voyager as I wrote the last bit. It kinda influenced Billy's technobabble. Lol

So I'm not super happy with the chapter. It kinda fought me every step of the way, but I got it out anyway in the end. For some reason, the first arc of Season 2 is just not wanting to flow for me. Maybe because I found the entire Season so cheesy, my mind and muse are just rebelling against me. Whatever it is, I really hope it stops soon.

So I decided on my new posting schedule for 2018. It may not be what many of you want to hear, but I really don't have near the free time I used to have. This isn't surprising seeing as I went from unemployed to having a full time job, but the fact stands. Anyway, the point is that my new proposed posting schedule is going to be once a month minimum. What I mean here is that I'll do everything in my power to get you all one chapter every month, most likely posted on a Sunday as I have been doing. What I'll also try to do is, if and when I get a bit of a buffer, try to post extra chapters as I can. This way I'll still keep up a semi-regular, if not predictable, update schedule and occasionally be able to give you all a bit extra as life allows.

I'm looking to wrap this little arc up in the next chapter, maybe two. We'll see how it develops.

Thanks for reading and don't forget to review,

Tenstar12


	42. Chapter 42

Magi Ranger

By: Tenstar12

AN: Shout out to Soundbitespartner who was the 1000th follower for Magi Ranger. In addition, they were also the 900th to favorite Magi Ranger. Gotta love it. : )

Also, because so many people asked, no, there was not a reference to Power Rangers Mystic Force last chapter. No, Harry will not be affiliated with Mystic Force in any way for the duration of Magi Ranger.

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or Power Rangers.

 **Chapter 42, or Pirantishead vs the Rangers, Round 3!**

Another bout of waiting so soon after the last made the entire situation that much more stressful for Harry.

Billy, Alpha, and Trini were all standing near a table that Alpha had teleported in. The table was strewn with various mechanical parts and circuits that the trio were slowly assembling into a large box with an antennae on top. Assumedly, this was the device that would break Pirantishead's control over the Megazord and allow Zordon to reenergize the Zords.

Due to Harry's complete lack of technological knowhow, not to mention the volatile reaction that his magic tended to cause around sensitive electronics, Harry was basically banned from the immediate area around the table, none of those involved willing to risk an accident with the stakes as high as they were.

Kimberly, Jason, and Zack, by contrast, were clustered nearby the table, eagerly watching the more mentally gifted trio work so there was no help in alleviating his boredom coming from that direction either. He couldn't even work on his galleons in his room or do any Grid Magic meditation exercises or anything, Zordon having cautioned against any upswings in his magic while the delicate work was going on.

So yeah, Harry was bored.

So lost in his boredom was he that he nearly jumped out of his skin when the Command Center's alarms once more went off.

"Rangers!" Zordon said immediately. "Pirantishead has appeared once more near Angel Grove."

Jason was quick to jump into action. "Is it attacking the Rally again?"

Zordon shook his floating head. "No, Jason, this time the monster is near the mountains where the Command Center is located. And the sensors indicate that the Megazord is moving in this direction as well."

"Oh man…" Zack groaned. "They must be coming after us directly."

"That is indeed possible, Zack," Zordon confirmed. "We must act quickly. Jason, you, Zack, Kimberly, and Harry must go and stall the monster while Trini and Billy remain here to help Alpha finish the disruption device. It is imperative that the device is finished as quickly as possible so that the Megazord can be recovered."

"And then we can take that overgrown guppy down!" Zack cheered, still showing the most excitement over the proposed power up.

Ignoring his friend, Jason nodded to Zordon. "Alright, we'll hold them off as long as we can. Are you ready guys?"

Still influenced by the Power within him, Harry nodded along with Zack and Kimberly and formed up behind Jason, though off to one side.

"It's Morphin' Time!"

"MASTODON!" "PTERODACTYL!" "TYRANNOSAURUS!" "MAGI RANGER, POWER UP!"

-MR-

As the light of the Rangers' teleportation faded in a typical rocky area in the mountains surrounded by tall cliffsides, they were immediately met with Pirantishead's taunting laughter. "Ho ho! So you came to face me again, Rangers! Think you can do any better than before?"

"Don't count us out just yet, fish lips," Jason shouted. "We've only just begun!"

"Well I'm not out of tricks yet either!" the monster fired back. "Putty Patrollers!"

From behind the monster, a putty patroller leaned out to its left, sticking little more than its head and shoulders into view. Then, another one did the same thing on the monster's right. Another popped up on the left, slightly lower than the first and with its arms stretched up over its head. A fourth copied that one on the right side. Another putty stuck its head from directly behind the monster, both its hands raised with one finger pointing upward on each hand. Finally, one putty patroller leapt into the air, flipping over Pirantishead's head and landing on its toes with its heels pressed together, its knees bent, and its arms reaching forward and up.

Harry blinked. What the…

"Remember guys," Jason said, surprisingly quietly considering he was in morph and tended to yell everything under those circumstances. "We're trying to buy as much time as we can. As long as we're fighting putties, Pirantishead probably won't get involved himself or bring in the Megazord."

"Yeah," Zack followed with a nod. "Remember what Zordon said about Zedd. He likes to drag things out as long as he thinks he's winning."

Kimberly nodded as well. "So we'll use that against him to buy Billy, Trini, and Alpha the time they need."

"Exactly," Jason concluded with his own nod. "So even though we know how to beat these guys easily, we shouldn't hit the 'Z' too quickly, and we don't want to make it look like we have too much of an advantage so the monster doesn't get involved himself."

Harry snorted. "Yeah, that would probably turn the tables around a bit too quickly for comfort."

A vague plan in place, the Rangers squared up with the six Z-putties and took their fighting stances.

After a few tense moments, Pirantishead seemed to have had enough of the standoff. "Putties, attack!"

The putties charged.

If there was any question in Harry's mind as to the physical superiority of Zedd's putties compared to Rita's it was laid to rest almost immediately. The putties cleared the thirty or so feet to the Rangers in a few seconds, rather impressive when coming from a dead stop, and used the momentum to add to their initial attacks.

Just as in their first encounter, a pair of them took to the sky, jumping and flipping to land behind the Rangers as their four compatriots engaged them directly. Harry barely managed to sidestep his initial opponent's opening punch, deflecting it further to the side as he moved before kicking the side of the putty's knee and dropping it to the ground.

He then spun just in time to duck under a kick from one of the two extra putties, which, as before, gave the first enough time to regain its feet and round on him again. Now faced with two opponents, Harry did the only thing he could do, he surrendered to the Grid Power within him.

Taking the initiative, Harry moved in and launched a rapid fire series of punches at one putty, forcing it to block or dodge as best it could, which honestly wasn't very well. Each blow that landed on the shoulders, arms, and stomach of the putty echoed across the rocky area with the same almost-metallic clang that had become so familiar with Rita's putties. Then, Harry twisted in place, apparating behind the other putty and delivering a powerful kick that knocked it to the ground.

As the construct struggled to rise, Harry hopped forward, landing with both feet in the small of its back, before using it like a springboard and leaping further into the air, twisting and flipping around as he went, before scissoring his legs as he came down toward the first putty again, violently whipping its head to one side and throwing it off its feet with his scissor kick. With a quick burst of Power, Harry launched a forcewave at the ground beneath him just before he hit, the resulting burst of energy effectively negating his own momentum and allowing himself to spin just enough to get his feet under him again, landing safely and rising again to take his fighting stance.

Harry smirked beneath his helmet before turning his attention to his teammates. Jason, predictably enough, was fighting two of the putties and easily handling them. His typical strongly offensive fighting style replaced in this instance with one more focused on blocking his opponent's attacks, mixed in with the occasional shoulder throw when the opportunity presented itself.

Kimberly was almost literally jumping and flipping circles around her putty. The Pink Ranger's agility and flexibility allowing her to almost easily avoid the construct's attacks.

Zack, once again utilizing his Hip Hop Kido, was befuddling his opponent with quick strikes mixed in with various dance moves. If the putty went to attack high, Zack would drop to the ground and lash out with his legs to trip it up. If the putty went low, Zack performed one of his impressive vertical leaps, usually coming down on the putty's head with an axe kick or the like before returning to his dancing.

Harry was sure that if the putty was capable of feeling frustration, it probably would be at that moment.

For all that the putties were stronger and faster and, arguably, more durable than Rita's they were still no match for the Power Rangers now that they knew what they were up against.

Still immersed within the Power within him, Harry came back from his musings as the two putties tried to attack him from either side. He quickly apparated a few feet back, taking himself out of harm's way. The two putties, showing that for all their strength they were still just as stupid as Rita's had been, managed to land a pair of straight punches right into the "Z's" on the other's chest, leading to the now familiar whir-static-crack that signaled their destruction.

Zack shot a glance over at Harry. "What the heck, man?!"

Harry just shrugged. "I didn't do it! They hit each other!"

"Don't worry about it now!" Jason shouted, followed by a grunt as he caught a kick to his side from one putty before twisting and throwing it into the other. "Just stick to the plan."

Nodding and seeing as Jason was now the only one fighting more than one putty, Harry moved to assist him when a shadow fell across him. Acting quickly, Harry dove forward just in time to avoid Pirantishead as the monster landed where the Magi Ranger had been standing. "You seem to be more than a match for my putties, but do you think you can handle me so easily?"

Harry clenched his fist before summoning the Magi Staff. He really wasn't looking forward to this, but he had to buy time, and that meant playing along. "Only one way to find out, mate."

Without another word, the monster charged him.

The first exchange went about as expected. The monster charged in, lashing out with one of the fish ends on its chain weapon like a club. Harry almost negligently ducked under the attack before swinging the Magi Staff hard into the fish's chest… and nearly dropping the weapon when his attack did little more than rattle his own bones. Taking advantage of Harry's stunned state, Pirantishead brought its other fish-club around and whacked him across the face with it, making a sharp slapping sound as it did as though it was a real fish.

Harry was sent sprawling from the blow and spent the next few seconds lying on his back and trying to figure out why there were stars dancing in front of his eyes.

"Ha ha!" the monster laughed. "Looks like you still can't manage to pierce through my scales, eh Magi Ranger?!"

Pierce?

That one word stuck in Harry's mind as he slowly climbed back to his feet. Could that be the answer? So far, just about every attack the Rangers had tried had involved blasting or burning the monster, to no effect. Even Harry's summoned lightning attack had done little more than scorch it. In their defense, attacks like that had always been enough to overwhelm any opponent in the past, but Pirantishead was able to shake off such attacks with relative ease.

Retaking his stance and brandishing the Magi Staff, Harry began gathering his magic. So far, every attack they had tried had been a whole bunch of damage spread all over, but what if he focused his attack on a single point?

Pirantishead was still laughing and taunting Harry over his inability to hurt it, which gave Harry plenty of time to prepare a Grid Powered piercing hex and launch it at the monster's torso.

In an instant, the spell shot forward. The monster's eyes widened and it threw itself to the side, but not quite fast enough to avoid contact and an ensuing explosion.

Unfortunately for Harry, the blast was far too close and he was sent flying backwards in the shockwave, losing his grip on the Magi Staff as he went.

Once his ears stopped ringing and his head stopped spinning, Harry found himself staring up at Jason, Zack, and Kimberly, apparently having dealt with their Putties in the time that Harry was fighting Pirantishead. "Harry!" Kimberly was near-shouting, one hand shaking his shoulder as his head lolled lazily. "Harry, are you alright?"

"Ugh… anyone see the Hippogriff that ran me over?"

"Yeah, he's talking about creatures we've never heard of before, he's fine." Zack quipped before the Ranger's attention was drawn to a scream of rage.

"Curse you Power Rangers!" Pirantishead shouted, all hints of humor in its voice now gone as it staggered out of the drifting smoke from the explosion. "I won't let you get away with that!"

Far from unscathed as it had been in the aftermath of all the Rangers' other attacks, Pirantishead was now sporting scorch marks all over its body and it walked with a visible limp. But most obvious of all, was the chunk missing from its left arm where Harry's Grid overcharged piercing hex had hit it.

The missing chunk that it seemed to be bleeding from.

"Woah…" Kimberly said weakly. "What did you do, Harry?"

Harry shrugged, nearly as shocked as Kimberly. "Uh… best guess is that the piercing hex I used managed to get through Zedd's protective magics, which reacted poorly and caused an explosion. Probably similarly to how his putties explode when we hit the 'Z.'"

It was strange, Harry mused as he climbed to his feet once again with assistance from Zack and Kimberly while Jason stood protectively before them, but Harry had never really thought of the monster's they fought as real, living beings. It somehow made it easier to fight and destroy them if he avoided doing so, and all of Rita's monsters had simply let off sparks when damaged and exploded when enough damage was done. No blood to be seen.

But maybe it was because Zedd actually turned a real fish into the monster or some other quirk of the villain's Power, but this monster was very clearly bleeding. Its arm hanging limply at its side as it glared at the four Rangers before it.

But whatever the matter, he wouldn't let some new, if admittedly off putting, feature with Zedd's monsters stop him from fighting against them, it just wasn't in him to do so. But he had his experiences with his old world and the War against Voldemort to rely on. The other Rangers had nothing…

"You all thought I was tough before, but I was just playing around with you." Pirantishead raged. "I'm going to enjoy tearing you apart with my bare fins!"

With that, the monster charged again, its injured arm still limp, but its other one raised with its webbed hand spread wide. Jason met the charge head on, delivering a few rapid fire punches before he was sent spinning by a strike from Priantishead.

Zack and Kimberly were already there though, Zack grabbing the monster's one remaining arm in an attempt to restrain it while Kimberly landed several strikes with her blade blaster, drawing forth a shower of sparks for her effort while the monster roared in pain and anger.

"Look!" Jason exclaimed as he climbed back to his feet, one hand pressed to a fresh scorch mark on his chest. "Kim is actually doing damage to it! Maybe you really did break down his defenses, Harry!"

Harry blinked, somehow not believing what he was seeing. He hadn't expected it at the time, but it really did look like he had, at least temporarily, cancelled out whatever had made their earlier attacks so supremely ineffective. His explanation earlier had been complete conjecture, but there might have been something to it after all!

"Come on, Harry, we've gotta take advantage of this!" Jason shouted, summoning his Power Sword before joining Kimberly in her assault while Zack continued to restrain the monster.

Shaking himself slightly, Harry summoned his staff back to his hand and jabbed it toward the monster. Instantly, ropes sprouted from the end and snaked their way around both the monster's legs and its one good arm, yanking said arm out of Zack's grip, and lifting the monster up into the air. He considered entangling the injured arm as well, but doing that would pretty much prevent the other Rangers from attacking for fear of cutting through the ropes and freeing the monster.

"Wow…" Zack said slowly. "That works a whole lot better… huh… POWER AXE!" Zack quickly regrouped and manifested his axe before laying into the monster with it as well.

This continued for a few seconds, Harry focusing his magic and will on keeping the monster from escaping while the other three did as much damage as possible as quickly as possible.

Then the ground started shaking.

It was only the slightest of quakes at first, but after the fourth time it got slightly stronger, Harry finally figured out what it was.

"Uh… guys…" Harry said, glancing over his shoulder and catching sight of the spiked head he had been worried about. "We may have a bit of a problem."

"HAHAHAHAHA!" Pirantishead let out a burst of insane laughter. "YES! COME TO ME, MEGAZORD, AND PUT AN END TO THESE POWER PESTS!"

"Oh great," Kimberly groaned as the three attacking Rangers turned to face the new threat. "Now what're we gonna do?"

"Well," Harry said, idly moving Pirantishead so it was floating, still restrained by his conjured ropes, between the Rangers and the approaching Megazord. "We could always use our little friend here as a shield to buy more time. I mean, I doubt that Pirantishead will direct the Megazord to attack while it can't get out of the way."

"That's not a bad idea, but then what?" Jason said, keeping his eyes locked on the Megazord. "We just wait for Billy and Trini?"

"And hope nothing else goes wrong in the meantime?" Kimberly followed, sounding incredibly uneasy with the idea.

Harry idly rubbed at the back of his helmet with his free hand. "Unless you guys have any better ideas…"

"I have one!" Pirantishead shouted before its previously limp and wounded arm reached over and grabbed the ropes restraining its other one, ripping them off after only a second's hesitation.

Harry blinked in surprise before trying to renew the spell, sending out another group of ropes to entangle both arms, but it was too late. With a quick heave, the monster bent over and freed its legs, falling to the ground and rolling away to dodge Harry's spell.

It jumped to its feet with surprising agility before leaping high into the air and landing some twenty yards away. "How about I get out of the way and you all die! HA HA!"

If nothing else, Harry mused, at least the monster's good humor had returned, not that that was especially helpful with the Megazord now bearing down on them.

"Now, Megazord!" Pirantishead shouted as the mechanical colossus came to a stop behind (and technically above) it. "Destroy the Power Rangers!" The monster's command was followed with another bout of insane laughter as it began dancing, its once wounded arm moving freely again as if it was never hurt, though Harry wasn't near close enough to tell if it had healed it already. That would be just their luck to have to face another monster with incredible regenerative abilities on top of its near impenetrable defense.

"Harry," Jason said quickly. "Can you disable the Megazord with your magic? Like you did to Cyclopsis?"

Harry grimaced. "I probably could, though it would likely leave me wiped out for some time afterward. Not to mention the Zords would be of no use to us for Zordon's plan until they could be repaired. And that's assuming that Zedd didn't go ahead and destroy them or something once they were no longer of use to him."

"Well we have to try something!" Zack said, watching as the Megazord's eyes began flashing before a glow traveled up the horns on the side of its head, jumped as electricity to the tip of the central horn, and began to gather there.

Harry started gathering his own Power up. If nothing else, he might be able to shield them from the Megazord's attack. At the very least, it would buy them more time.

"GUYS!" Billy's very welcome voice echoed out behind them as he and Trini came running up in morph, a large box with an antennae on the top being carried between them. "Guys, we've got it!"

"Just in time too," Jason said, relief in his voice. "Turn it on, quick!"

Mere moments before the Megazord would have released its attack, Billy and Trini set the box down and Billy pressed a prominent red button on the top.

Harry stopped breathing.

It seemed as though the entire world had frozen for a moment.

Then the moment passed and the white blur that had overtaken the Megazord faded away along with the glow of a charging attack atop its head.

Harry's heart started beating again as he, and the other Rangers, let out a breath of relief.

"NO!" Pirantishead shouted, once more in a rage. "How did you free the Megazord from my control?"

"You're finished now, fish face!" Jason said, triumph in his voice as the other four members of his team formed up behind him while Harry stood off to one side. "You're defense has been broken and we've got the Megazord back. It's time to end this! Let's bring them together!"

"POWER AXE!" "POWER BOW!" "POWER DAGGERS!" "POWER LANCE!" POWER SWORD!"

"POWER BLASTER!" The Rangers chanted together as they formed up around Jason holding the cannon. "FIRE!"

As the lance of light shot toward its target, Harry felt a huge upsurge in Power just as a bolt of lightning shot down in front of Pirantishead, disrupting the blast from the Rangers' weapon and saving the monster. The next blast headed, not for the Rangers, but for the Megazord, and the resulting explosion was enough to knock it back into the individual Zords, each one slowly changing back from their Megazord configuration.

"The Zords!" Jason shouted before a third blast of lightning struck the ground in the middle of where the Zords were lying, causing the ground to break away beneath them and sending the Zords into the fiery abyss below.

"NO!" The Rangers shouted, Harry included, as they watched their hopes for an easy victory be snatched away from them by Lord Zedd.

Pirantishead started laughing again, even as it lifted up one hand to catch one of Zedd's grey orbs. "Oh boy, lookie what I've got!" Without another word, the monster smashed the orb into the ground, triggering another explosion before the now giant form of Pirantishead emerged from the smoke.

"I'M HUNGRY!" the monster roared as it towered over the downtrodden Rangers before glancing down as if it had just noticed them. "AH, LUNCH!"

Harry and the others took a few steps backwards in shock. "Harry," Jason said after a brief moment. "I guess you're up."

"Yeah," the Magi Ranger said with a sigh. "I guess I am."

"Just remember what Zordon said, Harry," Trini said, giving his arm a squeeze. "You are on the verge of unlocking your own new Power. Maybe that'll be enough to give you an edge."

"And plus," Zack said, adding his own bit of encouragement. "You aren't going into the fight blind this time. You have a better idea of what Pirantishead is capable of. If you fight smart, you'll be able to take this guy down!"

Harry smiled beneath his helmet and nodded firmly, incredibly glad for the extra support if nothing else, but before he could call Hedwig, their communicators went off. "Rangers," Zordon's voice echoed from their wrists. "All is not yet lost. Harry, while you fight Pirantishead, the other Rangers must return to the Command Center. Alpha was able to save enough of the old Zords to create the new Zords, but the Rangers must return here to begin the enhancement process."

The mood amongst the Rangers took an immediate upswing. "Seriously, Zordon!" Kimberly asked, happiness now suffusing her voice.

"Indeed, Kimberly, but we must hurry. The process will take a little time, and Harry will be fighting all alone."

The mood soured a bit at that, but Jason quickly nodded. "Right, Zordon, we're on our way. Harry, we'll get back as soon as we can."

"No worries, Jason." Harry said, giving the Red Ranger a nod. "Hedwig and I will hold down the fort as long as we can."

Without another word and a tight but quick hug from Trini, the Might Morphin' Rangers teleported away, leaving Harry to face the gigantic Pirantishead monster alone.

"Awww," the monster taunted. "Did your little friends leave you all alone? Or are you making the heroic sacrifice to stall the big scary monster so the others can fight another day?"

Harry smirked, channeling all the bravado he could. "No, I just wanted another crack at you myself."

The monster let out a bark of laughter, throwing its head back before glaring hungrily down at Harry again. "Well then bring it on little Ranger, or am I going to have to eat you before I get my entertainment?"

"Alright, fish face, let's get to round 2." Harry shouted before throwing up his arm with a burst of Power. "I call upon the Silver Owl Zord, Hedwig!"

Hedwig appeared high overhead with a screech and the familiar flash of light. Once she had fully manifested, Harry wasted no time in leap/teleporting to her head. "Are you ready, Hedwig?"

- _Indeed, Harry/Wizard,-_ the Zord responded _. –This time, we will be ready._ -

Harry nodded, suppressing his doubts as best he could. Pirantishead was the strongest enemy the Rangers had fought yet, and he and Hedwig hadn't done well against it the first time at all. But Hedwig and the others were right, they were better prepared this time. He just hoped that it was enough to make the difference. "Begin Silver Owl Warrior Mode Transformation Sequence!"

When Harry and Hedwig had fused and transformed once more, they faced off against Pirantishead, what had once been rocky cliffs around them now only knee high obstructions. "So, Magi Ranger," Pirantishead began. "We find ourselves here once again. Surely you remember how our last encounter turned out."

"I certainly do," Harry responded as he reached behind his wings/cloak and pulled forth a pair of feathers that changed into his Feather Sabers in a flash of light. "Which is why I'm trying a different approach this time." Gritting his teeth (which was an interesting sensation when one's body is metal), Harry flipped the blade in his left hand into a reversed grip before charging, the ground shaking beneath his feet with every step.

"Oh ho! Playing with knives are we?" Pirantishead said with a chuckle before manifesting is fish-ended chain weapon and shifted his grip to hold a fish in each hand, the one in his left reversed to mimic Harry. "I'll play along then! It'll be so much more fun to beat you at your own game!"

Harry led off with a swing from his right hand blade that the monster blocked with his left weapon. Harry was then forced to block similarly as Pirantishead took a swing with its right handed fish. This put the two into a deadlock, each straining against the other. It was a deadlock that the bulkier Pirantishead was slowly winning as Harry slid backwards.

Finally, with a grunt of effort, Harry shifted his stance down and pushed upwards, breaking the deadlock and knocking the monster's guard wide. He quickly followed up by ducking a bit further down and ramming his right shoulder into the monster's chin/stomach, sending it stumbling backwards.

While Pirantishead struggled to regain its breath, the dome on Harry's chest began glowing. The glow quickly spread to his blades as he shifted the left hand one back to a proper grip. "Alright," Harry said grimly. "Let's see if this works better this time. Silver Owl Zord, Twin-Blade Buster!"

Harry charged forward, his blades glowing brightly as Pirantishead recovered, bringing up its fish clubs to meet Harry's as he brought them down. The resulting explosion when the two weapons met sent both combatants flying backwards. Harry quickly found himself rolling head over feet several times before finally coming to a rest at the base of a particularly tall cliff.

"Ugh…" Harry groaned as he climbed back to his feet, miraculously having kept a hold on the Feather Sabers during his tumble. "That didn't quite go as planned…"

"You… ha… you're pretty good there Magi Ranger…" Pirantishead panted as it too clambered back to its feet. "You could've had me there if I wasn't me."

Harry was sure that that had made some kind of sense, but quickly put the thought aside when Pirantishead stiffened slightly before nodding and looking upward. "Right-o, Lord Zedd." The monster then looked back down toward him. "Sorry Magi Ranger, Lord Zedd has commanded that I stop playing with you, so it's time for me to take things seriously."

Was Lord Zedd talking to his monster telepathically? Was there some kind of link between them so it could hear his commands from, presumably, the Moon Palace? Harry's musing was cut short when the monster flung one of the fish at him, smacking him across the face and making him nearly drop his blades in shock.

"AH! Bloody Hell!" Harry cursed, keeping his feet, if only barely, as Pirantishead reeled his weapon back in and began spinning the chain again to build momentum. Thinking quickly, Harry once more gathered Power into his sabers and ran at the monster. It had nearly worked once, maybe he would get lucky the second time when the monster wasn't as ready to guard against both blades.

Harry's charge was almost immediately stymied however, when Pirantishead once more threw his fish at him. Harry hopped to the side, angling himself to preserve as much momentum as he could while dodging the attack so he could continue his charge. Then the monster jerked the chain to one side, somehow manipulating the weapon so that it looped around behind Harry and quickly had him wrapped up, tripping him and sending him sliding.

"Now, this looks familiar, doesn't it?" Pirantishead taunted as Harry came to a stop in front of it before putting one of its massive feet on his chest.

Despite his struggles, Harry found himself unable to break free from the chain around him. His swords were pinned to his side at an awkward angle and, with the monster pinning him as it was, he couldn't move much anyway.

The monster seemed to be taking his time again, reveling in his apparent victory as Harry struggled to find some way out of this mess. If nothing else, he could always hope for a last second save from the other Rangers. Their Zords had to have gotten the necessary charge to increase their Power in whatever way Zordon was shooting for by now, right?

Right?

Then, Hedwig spoke. - _Harry/Wizard, remember what Big Head said before. You have the Power within you now to call the first of the Others to aid us. All you have to do is reach for it and let Voice From Nowhere guide you._ -

Right, Zordon had mentioned something about a breakthrough of his own, hadn't he? And Harry had already spent so much time in the last week with the Grid enjoying extra influence over his actions, much to Harry's chagrin, so what did it matter if he gave it a bit more influence now, when the alternative was being crushed/exploded/eaten by a giant fish monster?

He'd take embarrassing speeches and stupid poses over death and dismemberment any day.

And so, Harry reached down deep within himself. Down to the mote of light that represented his connection to the grid. A mote that was surrounded by an ever growing ball of Power that represented his personal reserves of Grid Power.

Taking the mote into his metaphysical hands, Harry surrendered himself to the Grid and felt its Power flow through him. **"It's about time,"** the Grid spoke as Harry made the connection. **"I was getting worried that you wouldn't let me help."**

Harry took the slight chastisement for what it was and forced himself to relax further as his Power began shifting without his mental control. He felt it flex within him before pulsing once as a majority of what he held was expended in a single casting.

Then, the words came to him and he tilted his head back as much as he could before calling them out. "Heart of Mischief! Soul of a Marauder! Power of the Cloak of Invisibility! I call you forth: Black Grimm Zord! PADFOOT!"

-MR-

AN: Ok, first things first, NO, Padfoot is NOT animated by the soul of Sirius Black. That is not now, nor has it ever been intended to be, and nor will it ever be a thing in Magi Ranger. Sirius Black died when he went through the veil. Hedwig only arrived in the MMPR dimension because of the interference of the Grid with the Resurrection Stone's power mixed in. So Sirius cannot use the same method, or, more specifically, have the same method used on him. Now that that has been put to rest, we now return to your regularly scheduled end of chapter AN.

So am I the only one who found it utterly ridiculous that, in canon, Billy took Trini back to his lab to create his oversized box thingamajig instead of working with Alpha in the technologically advanced Command Center to create it? Thing probably would have been easier to carry around if he had. And I doubt the batteries would have been backwards either. *sigh*

Also, I took a step into the weird world of the Z-putties entrances in this chapter. What did you think?

So this one isn't quite as long as I originally pictured it, but it was where I felt things should stop. I did have a bit of a time crunch on this chapter too. I've been getting into some more technical training and such at work, meaning I don't have as much time to brainstorm, and have been playing on a private server for Ark: Survival Evolved with a few friends while at home, so Magi Ranger was kinda pushed to the wayside for a bit. But, last week, when I suddenly remembered, "Holy cow! I still need to post a chapter this month!" the inspiration came surprisingly easily, even if my muse kinda decided to stop where it did. Anyway, I hope everyone enjoyed it.

Next chapter we should see the end of the "Rebellion" episode stuff so we can get Season 2 well and truly under way.

BTW, kudos to anyone who caught the Dragonball Z reference in this chapter.

Thanks for reading and don't forget to review,

Tenstar12


	43. Chapter 43

Magi Ranger

By: Tenstar12

AN: Shout out to TM11 who was the only one who caught the Dragonball Z reference in the last chapter and also mentioned it.

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or Power Rangers.

 **Chapter 43, in which The Rangers Show Zedd the Next Level of Power!**

 _"Heart of Mischief! Soul of a Marauder! Power of the Cloak of Invisibility! I call you forth: Black Grim Zord! PADFOOT!"_

For a moment, Harry's words echoed around the area, resounding off the rocky ground as tension seemed to build in the air.

But nothing happened.

"HA!" Pirantishead taunted after another few moments, shifting its stance and pressing down on Harry harder with its foot. "And here I was getting worried that you may pull something out of your- GAH!"

The monster's words were cut off when a very large something smashed into it from the side and sent it tumbling, losing its grip on its chain weapon as it went. The only problem was, whatever had hit Pirantishead, Harry couldn't see it.

He could sense it though. A distinct feeling as if there was something nearby. Something big.

That something seemed to shift downward briefly before a section of the chain around Harry lifted as if on its own before it contorted, flattening briefly in a few spots before a piece that was several links long was separated from the rest. This gave Harry enough slack to struggle out of the rest of the chain and regain his feet as the removed section dropped to the ground.

By this time, Pirantishead had regained its feet and its bravado. "I don't know how you did that, Magi Ranger, but it won't make any difference in the end. I'm still gonna destroy you, I'll just have to do it with my bare fins!"

For his part, Harry wasn't too terribly sure what he had done either. He supposed, based on what Zordon, Hedwig, and even the Grid had said, that he had summoned another Zord. But where was it? Had it truly been his Zord that freed him from the monster's chains after knocking the overgrown fish aside? Or was it some new manifestation of the other Rangers' Power. The one that Zordon was working toward this whole time?

Then Harry heard a growling sound before the massive presence he felt moved again. He watched as several clouds of dust erupted one after another in a line toward Pirantishead, each cloud accompanied by the ground shaking as if from giant footsteps.

Pirantishead had noticed the clouds as well, but was completely unable to stop the unseen figure before it knocked the monster off of its feet once again, this time apparently pinning it to the ground. "What!" the monster cried, struggling to rise, but seemingly unable to lift its left shoulder or any of its torso. "What's going on here?!"

Harry was just as confused as the monster, but then the air seemed to ripple and it all made sense as a massive robotic dog faded into view. At first glance, the dog would have been huge even if it had been human sized as opposed to Zord sized, its head easily reaching halfway up Harry/Hedwig's body. The overall build of the dog was rather slender, though based on how easily it was holding down the monster, it didn't lack for strength despite not quite looking like it.

The Zord's head was currently lowered down toward Pirantishead, staring into the monster's eyes as it let out a slightly mechanical sounding growl. The monster was panicking at this point, thrashing around wildly as much as it could before landing a glancing blow with one of its legs, shifting the dog just enough to let it squirm itself partially free.

As soon as the monster took a swipe at it, the Zord jumped back, avoiding the more solid blow with ease. Once it landed, it's demeanor switched from threatening to almost playful, wagging its tail frantically as it practically bounced over to Harry's side before plopping its back end down onto the ground, causing another minor quake in the process.

Harry couldn't take his eyes off of the new Zord. Taking in the familiar, although very much mechanical, head of his godfather's Animagus form. "Padfoot…" Harry near whispered, idly raising one hand and placing it on the Zord's head. Padfoot bowed his head, leaning into Harry's contact slightly before the moment was interrupted by Pirantishead once again.

"If you think that flea bitten metal mutt is gonna make any difference in this battle then you've got another thing coming!" The monster had yet again regained its feet and had its clawed fin/hands held up before it.

Harry shook himself slightly. He would have time to ponder on Padfoot later. Right now, they had a fish to fry. "Alright, Padfoot, let's take this guy down!"

With an echoing bark, Padfoot vanished again as Harry brandished his blades and charged toward Pirantishead. The monster met him partway, bringing up its clawed fins and blocking Harry's downward strike with his swords.

Undeterred, Harry struck again, this time using one sword to knock the monster's arms aside, allowing his second blade to strike true, drawing a line of sparks from Pirantishead's torso/face. Unfortunately, it had little effect beyond that, the monster's increased defenses more than able to resist Harry's attack just as before.

"HA! You still can't hurt me Magi Ranger!" The monster taunted, completely lowering its arms and letting Harry deliver a ferocious series of strikes, each one drawing sparks, but leaving only the barest of scorch marks behind. The instant Harry paused in his assault, Pirantishead made its move, leaping forward and delivering a right cross to Harry's face, sending him stumbling backwards and once more divesting him of his blades.

Pirantishead continued its assault, chasing after the stumbling Zord and taking its own strikes. Any time Harry would start to recover, the fish monster would deliver another crushing blow, knocking him back off balance even as the monster kept up its mocking laughter.

"It's no use, little Power Ranger!" it taunted, delivering a kick to Harry's chest and knocking him off his feet in a daze. Without your little friends, there's no way you can defeat me!" It paused for a moment as it stepped up to loom over Harry once again. "Actually, even if they were here, you still couldn't beat me! HA HA!"

The monster reached down and grabbed Harry around his right arm, lifting the still dazed Ranger off the ground while it drew back its other arm. "Say goodbye, Magi Ranger!"

And then, before the monster could take his finishing blow, Padfoot reappeared in mid leap, latching onto the monster's arm with his jaws. The added weight, not to mention the wrenching motion that Padfoot applied when it jerked the monster backward, threw Pirantishead off balance and caused it to drop Harry. The Magi Ranger stumbled slightly before regaining his balance and channeled Power to his hands.

Once his clawed fingers had taken on a sufficient glow, he crouched slightly and lined himself up with Pirantishead, who was frantically trying to shake off Padfoot's grip. "Alright Pirantishead," Harry said, mostly to himself, as his wings flared and Hedwig's consciousness rose up to assist him yet again. "Let's see how you really handle this one." As Power flared out from them, forming the image of a crescent moon behind them, Harry/Hedwig narrowed their eyes. They would only get one shot at this, and that was only because Padfoot was doing such a good job of distracting the monster. If things went like they had the first time they tried this attack… well, they just wouldn't think of that.

Throwing caution to the wind, Harry/Hedwig dashed forward in a burst of Power. "Silver Owl: Moonlit Claw Slash!"

At the last moment, Pirantishead turned just enough to see them coming and its already bulbous eyes widened further. Padfoot, noticing them coming as well, gave the monster one last jerk before releasing his grip and backing away. This last jerk was enough to throw the monster off balance to the point that it had no time to react before Harry/Hedwig was upon it, delivering multiple strikes from their Power enhanced claws as they passed and obscuring the monster in a billowing cloud of smoke and sparks.

However, as Harry slid to a stop behind Pirantishead's previous location, he noticed that there was a distinct lack of an explosion.

As Padfoot trotted over to his side, Harry turned once more to face the cloud of dust obscuring Pirantishead. After a few moments, the wind picked up enough to clear the air, revealing the monster still standing where it had been, now facing away from Harry. Slowly, as if intentionally building the suspense, Pirantishead turned to face him again, revealing a latticework of thin scorch marks where Harry's clawed hands had raked across its flesh, but little else.

"Well, Magi Ranger," The monster began again. "It appears we are at an impasse. You are unable to damage me, but without my weapon, I have to get ahold of you to finish you off, and any time I do, I suspect that disappearing dog of yours will interfere."

Harry just grit his teeth… or whatever it was that replaced his teeth in his current form. Pirantishead had a point. He already knew that nothing he could do while fused with Hedwig was strong enough to destroy the monster, and Padfoot had already proven his worth in helping him out, but showed no real initiative or methods for destroying Pirantishead himself.

Harry certainly had no clue as to what the new Zord was capable of.

And then, as Harry's mind continued to race, an explosively loud peal of thunder echoed across the area. Both massive figures, and presumably the now invisible again Padfoot, were caught off guard, flinching before turning to face the origin of the sound.

Harry felt his spirits rise when he realized what he was looking at.

The first thing he saw was a black shape, partially hidden by the rocky crags and such as it was, it was rather hard to identify. Then he heard the familiar trumpeting noise of Zack's Dinozord and made the connection mere moments before the Mastodon Dinozord came into full view, charging toward the battleground as fast as it could go.

Shortly after that, the other four Dinozords came into view, splitting off from where they had been mostly hidden behind the Mastodon.

"Good job holding out, Harry." Jason's voice came through loud and clear, bringing no small amount of relief with it. "But I think it's time to finish this guy off once and for all!"

"I really can't tell you guys how happy I am to see you all again." Harry responded, relief in his voice.

"Not a problem, Harry." Zack said with a chuckle. "Happy to be of assistance."

"Yeah, just step aside and we'll take it from here." Kimberly continued.

Pirantishead, hearing none of this, started back into its taunting. "Oh look, the other Rangers! And they brought their Zords for me to take control of again! HA HA! This day couldn't get any better!"

With a slight grunt of effort followed by a demented laugh, Pirantishead brought its hands across its face before throwing them aside again, releasing the same off-white beam that had hijacked the Zords when it had first appeared. The beam raced toward the approaching Dinozords as Harry watched helplessly. There was no way to know if Billy's device had remained intact during Harry's fight with the monster, or even if it would work again in the first place. What would happen if they lost the Dinozords again, presumably after Zordon had already empowered them?

His worries were baseless however, as a bolt of lightning jolted out of the sky from one of several clumps of ever-darkening storm clouds, intercepting the beam and dispersing it harmlessly. Then, as Harry watched, the clouds began growing. Larger and larger they became at a pace far too rapid to be anything totally natural until the entire sky was blanketed by them. And as they grew, they dropped more and more bolts of lightning.

At first, Harry was worried, but then he realized that the bolts were only striking around the approaching Dinozords all while never actually hitting them. Then he noticed that there was an actual, visible disturbance in the air caused by each bolt, sending a rippling effect that washed over the Dinozords as they charged. These ripples of Power, for what else could they be, were gaining in strength as the Dinozords drew closer to Harry and the monster until finally, with dozens of lightning bolts arcing down all at once and releasing a positively deafening burst of thunder, the Zords changed.

The Mastodon shifted mostly down and out, losing some of its height and gaining more width, looking less like an organic animal and more like the machine it was, though with more curves than sharp corners. The elephantine head changed to be more feline looking and its front legs widened and settled into a more tread-like form while its back legs disappeared entirely, leaving the Zord resting and rolling along the ground. It was largely black with gold trim, though there was a large green orb mounted at the center of its back.

"Mastodon, Lion Thunderzord Power!" Zack shouted triumphantly from within the cockpit of his new Zord.

The Pterodactyl's change wasn't quite so dramatic as the waves of Power washed over it. Opposite the Black Ranger's Zord, it lost a great deal of its inorganic look, taking on a more natural one. Its fixed wings gaining joints so they could move and flap and the body, once the chest piece of the Megazord, slimming down a great deal while the head grew in size slightly to match the new body shape. This new Zord was a light red color with, again, gold trim on its head crest and tail.

"Pterodactyl, Firebird Thunderzord Power!" Kimberly shouted next in the grid-guided roll call.

Billy's Triceratops basically remained the same, save for the head of his Zord stretching up and back slightly and taking on a somewhat equine appearance with a smoothly curved crest on its head and the tiniest nub of a horn pointing straight forward from between its eyes. The body lost a great deal of its blue color, shifting to black largely, with some yellow and blue mixed in as emphasis while the overall shape effectively became that of a rectangle with an angle on one end below the head. The treads of the triceratops were completely hidden as the body shifted downward, taking on a similar design to the Black Lion Thunderzord with the ground hugging, hidden tread design.

"Triceratops, Unicorn Thunderzord Power!" Billy announced once his Zord finished its metamorphosis, letting out a whinnying noise.

Trini's Saber-Tooth Tiger dropped down to ground level as well, losing its legs and shifting to a design very similar to Billy's, save that it was Yellow where his was blue, had a pointed crest sticking out of the back of its head which also had a more pointed look as opposed to a horse's muzzle.

"Saber-Tooth Tiger, Griffin Thunderzord Power!" Trini called out, her Zord almost growling as she did.

The Rex had the most drastic change of all. Far from losing size as the others seemed to overall, the Rex almost immediately began to grow, not in width, but in length. As its tail and neck stretched out, its body thinned down, its legs shrinking while its tiny arms grew to compensate. In the end, the Rex had an almost completely red, serpentine body with a few green and yellow highlights and an elongated head with a pair of golden horns coming from the back of it.

"Tyrannosaurus, Red Dragon Thunderzord Power!" Jason boomed, his dragon roaring along with him, undulating through the air next to the Firebird while the Unicorn, Griffin, and Lion rumbled on underneath.

"What!?" Pirantishead shouted, stumbling back a few steps even as Harry stood too stunned to move. "What is this!?"

"This is the end of you, fish face!" Jason shouted aloud as the new Thunderzords came to a stop, the fliers merely hovering in place. "Alright, guys, let's show this guy the Power of Thunder!" With Jason's words came another crack of thunder that nearly drowned out the simultaneous chant of "right" from the other four Rangers. "Initiating Thunder Megazord transformation sequence!"

And then the Zords began changing again, although this time it was easily recognizable as a purely mechanical change into a Megazord.

First, and again the most drastic, came the Red Dragon. Its front and back legs joined together as the head completely detached from its neck. Then, the neck and tail both began pivoting upward around the widest point of its body while the joined legs pivoted downward. The entire thing then flipped over so the neck and tail, now with black feet having folded into view, were pointing down while the dragon legs were now in place of arms on what now resembled a headless, humanoid figure. Then the dragon head came back around, folding down to reveal a humanoid face behind it, and slotted into place betwixt the machine's shoulders, the top of the dragon's head visible on the chest.

Next, the Griffin and Unicorn's heads and necks folded back and downward, coming to lie flat along their backs as, much like with the Triceratops and Saber-Tooth Tiger, they folded upwards to form the feet of the Thunder Megazord that the transformed Red Dragon then dropped into, its feet and legs slotting into place seamlessly.

The Firebird came in from behind the colossus, folding and contorting its wings to wrap around the Megazord's waist to form something like a belt. The Lion then separated into three parts, the main body contorted and somehow hollowed out before latching onto the transformed Red Dragon's chest like armor, the green orb now in the center of its chest and the head folding upward to rest sort of like a belt buckle around the Zord's waist. Each of the Lion's "arms" then transformed themselves, a humanoid arm folding out of each of them and slipping on over the Red Dragon's humanoid arms before the bulk of the Lion's tread-legs came to rest like oversized shoulder pads.

Finally, a helmet resembling that of a samurai appeared, from somewhere within the Lion Zord based on the coloration of it, and settled into place over the Red Dragon's head. After a few more moments, and with another echoing peal of thunder, the Zord's eyes and green chest orb flashed with internal light before a sword and scabbard manifested at its side and the entire thing began moving.

"Thunder Megazord, Power up!" The Ranger's chanted from their cockpit, that once again seemed to be in the Megazord's chest if Harry was seeing correctly.

Pirantishead was trying to act unimpressed, but it was rather obvious that it was worried now. "You… you think that you're new toy frightens me?" The monster near shouted in its panic, frantically looking around. After a few seconds of searching, it took a few steps to one side and ducked down, standing again with one of the fish from the ends of its chain weapon held in one hand. "Just to show you how little I care, I'll play you a tune!" The monster brought the fish up to its mouth and began… humming? It started humming a song of some kind while its free hand kept time.

Despite his bafflement, Harry felt the Grid step in to guide him again, leaping into the air and beating his wings (with no small amount of help from Hedwig on that part), allowing him to turn in midair and land a short distance away from the clash that was about to happen. Next to him, Padfoot faded back into view, sitting with his mechanical tongue lolling out of the side of his mouth as he too looked on.

The Rangers were too lost in the Grid guidance to react to the fish monster's ridiculousness and merely guided their Zord into drawing its sword. "Thunder Saber, Battle Action!"

With a quick yet fluid pull, the long, slightly curved, sword was drawn from it sheath. The Megazord then shifted its grip, rotating the blade in its hand and causing a bright green orb mounted at the guard to light up while more lightning cracked overhead.

Harry had a feeling that, with this new set of Zords, thunder and lightning would become commonplace during Ranger battles.

While Pirantishead continued to… hum? Sing? Whatever it was doing, while it continued doing it, the Thunder Saber began to glow. "Thunder Saber, Thunder Strike!" The Rangers chanted as one as the Thunder Megazord moved the few steps needed to bring it into range before bringing the glowing blade down across Pirantishead, sending the fish monster flying as arcs of electricity danced over its skin.

"Noooo!" Pirantishead roared in defiance. "I cannot be beaten like this! I… I cannot! AHHHH!" With one final explosion, the fishy fiend was destroyed and Harry felt his metaphysical jaw drop. After all the trouble that monster had caused them, the Rangers' new Zords just finished it off in a single blow. That was one heck of a power up!

At the same time, it made him feel rather impotent. He had been completely unable to do anything more than stall Pirantishead. Even the addition of Padfoot to the battle had only meant that he wasn't going to be destroyed himself so easily. Now, with the Thunder Megazord, would his participation in the battles even be necessary? Would they even really want him there if all he could do was act as a distraction or a stall tactic?

Shaking aside his suddenly depressing thoughts, Harry focused on the Thunder Megazord as it sheathed its sword before standing stoically as the smoke cleared and the sun finally broke through the storm clouds that had gathered earlier. None of Harry's worries mattered at this moment. He could take time to figure things out later, but for now they could relax again, at least for a while.

-MR-

After the traditional post-battle review in the Command Center, Harry and the other Rangers were once more arranged before Zordon while Alpha puttered about with the computers.

"Rangers," Zordon said, pride on his face. "Well done on yet another successful battle. With the aid of the new Thunderzords and the teamwork that has brought you so far already, I know that you will be up for any challenge that Lord Zedd may place in your path."

"Yeah, man!" Zack said exuberantly. "The new Zords are totally kickin!"

"Way cool," Kimberly agreed, smiling at Trini who nodded.

"Definitely morphinominal," Billy added.

"They are pretty cool," Harry started, smirking as he turned to face the Black Ranger. "But I have to say, Zack, you're kinda the weak link there."

Zack turned to face Harry, confusion on his face that was mirrored on the other Rangers as well. "What do you mean, Harry?"

Harry's smirk grew slightly as he shrugged. "Well, your Zord is just a lion. Now, I like lions well enough, they were the animal representing my house back at Hogwarts after all, but when compared to a Unicorn, a Griffin, a Firebird, and a Dragon, it can't really compete."

After a few moments, Zack blinked and scowled at the Magi Ranger good naturedly, recognizing the teasing for what it was. Kimberly giggled while Billy let out a brief chuckle. Jason merely huffed slightly, though there was a slight smile on his face. Trini rolled her eyes before playfully slapping Harry's arm which prompted an overly dramatic reaction from the wizard.

Zordon brought them all back into focus however with his next words. "Yes, the new Zords are indeed powerful, but you must all be aware of the drawbacks that came with them. In order to change the Dinozords into the Thunder Zords, they were exposed to a great deal of Power. This Power in turn carried over into your Power Coins and then into each of you. It will have enhanced the strength and capabilities of each of you while in morph as well as out of it. You will all have to be careful that you don't accidentally injure someone with your new, increased abilities due to this excess of Power."

"So we're all stronger now?" Jason asked, one eyebrow quirked in curiosity.

"Among other potential effects, yes," the wizard responded vaguely. "I want all of you to be vigilant, especially in the next few days to come, so you don't accidentally do something to draw attention to yourselves and your secret identities."

"What about Harry?" Trini asked, leaning into her boyfriend's side as she spoke and getting a brief squeeze from his arm around her waist in response. "Was his strength increased the same way?"

Zordon shook his head. "No, Trini. Harry's new Zord was not created from a massive influx of Power in the same way as yours were. The Black Grim Zord, Padfoot, is merely the next step in his branch's development."

Zack smiled suddenly before rounding on Harry. "Hey, you were giving me such a hard time about having a plain old lion as my new Zord. Yours is just a dog, so there!"

Harry smirked even as he felt his emotions start to rise again at the thought of his new Zord now that the danger was over. "Actually, Zack, Padfoot isn't just a dog. As Zordon said, he's a Grim. It's a magical breed of dog that are believed to be omens of death to any who catch sight of one. Legend says that if one sees a Grim, then they are likely to die fairly soon afterward…"

"Indeed, Harry. Padfoot is a very powerful ally for us to have in the battles to come. According to the sensor readings, this Zord draws its Power from the Invisibility Cloak, as I'm sure your surmised based on it becoming invisible during your battle with Pirantishead. In addition, much like Pirantishead, much of Padfoot's Power is focused into his defensive capabilities. While he is quite capable when it comes to the offensive side of battle, he is much more suited as a distraction and ambush or attrition battler while you and Hedwig take the forefront."

Harry swallowed heavily before speaking up again. "Zordon… about Padfoot… is he really… I mean… is it possible that…" He found himself unable to continue, his voice breaking up any time he tried to speak as his emotions began to overwhelm him.

Luckily, his mentor seemed to understand what he wanted to know. "Unfortunately, Harry, while your Godfather was indeed the inspiration behind the Grid's design of the Zord as well as its name, Padfoot is not animated by the soul of Sirius Black in the same way as Hedwig. Indeed, Hedwig's condition was only made possible by the Resurrection Stone and your close bond with her, so it wouldn't be possible for such a thing to happen anyway."

Harry forced down a shudder of emotion and nodded, feeling relief and disappointment at the same time as he processed Zordon's words. Disappointment that he wouldn't see his Godfather again in any form and relief that he wouldn't be trapped in such an unusual form (for Sirius anyway). Hedwig was naturally an owl, so being in the cybernetic form she now occupied wasn't too much of a difficulty for her. Still, Padfoot was a fitting tribute to the memory of Harry's godfather. One that the Magi Ranger was sure the man would have appreciated.

While Trini returned Harry's slight hug in an attempt to comfort him, Kimberly stepped forward. "I just have one question left, I guess. What ever happened to Rita?"

Zordon hummed for a moment before nodding. "That is a very good question Kimberly. Alpha, initiate a sensor sweep and search for Rita's energy signature."

"Right away, Zordon." Alpha responded as he worked the controls on one of the consoles. A few moments later, he perked up. "I've located her, Zordon. Quadrant 3, subsection 37. She appears to be once more trapped in the space dumpster prison and hurtling through space."

"No doubt cast into space by Lord Zedd for her failure, Alpha." Zordon said with another nod. "Rangers, observe the viewing globe."

As a now mostly recovered Harry and the other Rangers turned to face the viewing globe, a most unusual scene was taking place. Rita was sitting in a largely black space with a slight amount of fog drifting around the ground. Her robes appeared to be bunched around her and she was waving her hands back and forth rhythmically as she… sang…

"Ninety-nine bottles of slime on the wall! Ninety-nine bottles of slime! You take one down, pass it around, ninety-eight bottles of slime on the wall!"

Almost simultaneously, the Rangers, Zordon, and Alpha began laughing uproariously at their former foe. The shear ridiculousness of the scene combined with the relief from winning their first battle with Zedd bringing out no small amount of deliriousness.

All of the Rangers but Harry that is. The Magi Ranger found his eyes darting around, taking in every detail of the image in the viewing globe that he could. Even as Rita broke into her second verse, he could find no sign of her scepter in the image. Indeed, after a few more moments he had to conclude that the space witch's primary focus was not in the space dumpster with her.

Rita seemed to be well and truly out of their hair now, but what had happened to the Elder Wand?

-MR-

"It's those Power Rangers' faults!"

"Yeah, their fault, not ours!"

"We could've been famous!"

"Famous!"

"We could've saved the city twice as fast as they did."

"Yeah, twice as fast!"

"And we would've won the marathon if it wasn't for that stupid purple Ranger!"

"Yeah, stupid purple guy!"

After departing the Command Center, the Rangers had made their way to the Youth Center. The day wasn't too terribly late, so they had decided to check in with Ernie to make sure he, and the Youth Center, were alright only to walk into a party celebrating the latest victory of the Power Rangers. Apparently, since they were facing a new foe and had to get new Zords to win, Ernie felt this warranted a celebration.

And so it was.

Although how he managed to get the word out and do all the prep work to make it feasible was beyond all of the Rangers.

In any case, the Power Rangers were eager to jump right in, letting the last bit of the stress they had been feeling slip off of their shoulders as best they could while enjoying the food, drinks, and company on offer. Harry, after Ernie rebuffed any attempts he made to help man the snack bar and firmly ordering him to enjoy himself, managed to find a quiet corner to himself while he digested everything that had happened. He was soon joined by Tommy, who had been drawn to the Youth Center because of the party and because he knew it was the most likely place to run into his former teammates.

He was quite eager to hear more of the hidden details behind the Rangers' latest win, but before any storytelling could commence, Bulk and Skull had started with their own announcement, drawing the attention of everyone in the room.

"I'm telling you all this, we'll get those Rangers for what they've done to us!"

"Yeah, we'll get them!"

"As if it wasn't bad enough that they stole our praise during the festival…"

"The Incredible Bulkster and Super Skull!"

"…that stupid purple wannabe destroyed our quad bikes so we couldn't finish the race earlier today!"

By this time, the two bullies' shouting had drawn a crowd, including Harry and Tommy who had stepped forward to get a better view of the spectacle the two were making of themselves. Bulk and Skull were still wearing the same clothing they had been in when Harry had rescued them from Pirantishead, dirt, dust and all, and were holding their helmets under their arms. Bulk was tossing a fist sized stone up and down in one hand, which Harry assumed was the stone he had used to Portkey them away after the rescue.

"So what exactly do you two think you're going to be able to do to the Power Rangers?" Jason asked from another part of the crowd as he and the other core Rangers stepped into view.

Bulk rounded on Jason before stomping up to him and getting right in his face. "Well, that is quite simple, Jason. Skull and I are going to find out who they really are!"

"Yeah, we're gonna reveal their secret identities!"

"And once we do," Bulk said, tossing the stone up into the air again and snatching it again as it dropped. "Then we'll be famous and their lives will be ruined."

"Uh huh…" Jason drawled, fighting down a smirk as he glanced at the other four who were having similar troubles hiding their mirth. Not that the rest of the crowd was doing too much better. "Well, good luck with that then, guys."

Bulk scoffed. "We don't need luck. We have talent."

"Talent!" Skull parroted.

"Brains!"

"All of the brains!"

"And skill!" Bulk tossed the stone up again, but when he went to snatch it this time, he mistimed his grab, instead smacking the stone in midair and sending it over toward Skull. Luckily for the skinnier bully, the stone hit the motorcycle helmet he was still carrying under one arm and ricocheted back toward Bulk. Unfortunately for the larger bully, the stone then smacked him squarely in the forehead.

Bulk staggered for a moment, eventually running into Skull and sending him stumbling as well. After that, the two took a very predictable fall into one of the nearby tables, upturning it and dumping large quantities of punch and dip all over them, much to the amusement of the watching Youth Center patrons.

Once the laughter died down, Ernie arrived to kick the two out of the Youth Center for causing a scene and wasting so much food, and Harry suppressed the tick developing over one eye at the bumbling duo somehow ending up covered in food yet again, he and Tommy returned to Harry's semi private corner and, after the application of a wandless Muffliato charm, Harry gave the former Green Ranger the story.

"Wow," Tommy replied, shaking his head slowly in awe. "That's almost enough to make me wish I was still in on everything. New Zords, new power, a new enemy to fight…"

"And all sorts of new dangers to go along with it." Harry replied with a snort. "Zedd is something completely different from Rita. I'm just really worried that we might run into a bit more than we can handle, especially coming straight off of this high. It wouldn't be a good idea to get overconfident."

Tommy patted Harry's shoulder sympathetically. "Hey, you aren't the only one who knows how to fight a war anymore. Sure, Jason and the others don't have the same experience you do, but by now, they've all learned not to let their guard down. You guys just have to stick together and there's nothing you won't be able to face down."

Harry offered a thankful smile to his Martial Arts instructor. "Yeah, I guess you're right, Tommy. Maybe it is just my paranoia talking…"

After that their conversation devolved to less dire subject, mostly revolving around where and when they would meet to continue Harry's martial arts education and training. Eventually, they were joined by Kimberly and Trini only for the two to coax their boyfriends out to the impromptu dance floor.

The battle was over, for now, and it was time for the weary warriors to recuperate, for there was no telling what threats Lord Zedd would send at them next, or when they would arrive…

-MR-

AN: So yeah, I had been hoping to get this chapter out sooner than the last weekend of the month again, but things got in the way as always. This time, it wasn't entirely life and work though. I've actually had an idea for another fic bouncing around my head. This one is both a crossover and a self-insert of a sort, but it has been dominating my thoughts during much of my down time that is used for plotting and planning my writing. Though this is at least partially because I knew where I wanted to go with this chapter and just needed to take the time to write it.

I have no doubt that, should I write this story, it won't get a lot of traffic, but I wouldn't really be writing it for the reviews, though those are nice to have. : )

And also, don't worry. If I do end up writing the other story alongside Magi Ranger, this one will still get priority.

Anyway, now we see the form of Padfoot and get a bit of info about him. Padfoot is totally a tank. Also, THUNDER ZORDS! I remember seeing these Zords for the first time back in the 90's and finding the Unicorn and Gryphon to be ridiculous, but the Red Dragon to be rather awesome. Can't wait till I get to the White Ranger and the Tigerzord though. : )

The transformation sequence for the Thunder Megazord required me to go scrounging through Youtube videos of the toy and see how it went together. You really don't get enough detail in the show. For example, I had no idea where the helmet came from, or how the larger arms came about in the Megazord form. I mean, it makes sense in retrospect, but it was never obvious in the show's transformation sequences. They were too busy showing off the Red Dragon's transformation to show much detail with the Megazord I guess…

And I really had to look to find the Unicorn Thunderzord's horn. I searched through several Google pics before I found one with the right angle to show it. After that, I could make it out in all of the pics, but it never struck me as much of a unicorn to be honest.

And I already know I'm gonna have trouble writing "Griffin Thunderzord" as opposed to "Gryphon Thunderzord."

Also, the deal with Zack's new Zord is a bit of a running gag I came up with a while ago. One that will definitely continue on into the Ninja Zords. Beyond that… well, we'll have to see what I can come up with.

When I was writing the line about Harry noticing the lack of an explosion after hitting the monster with a finisher, I was tempted to write "He noticed a distinct lack on an earth-shattering kaboom." I blame Loony Toons. : )

Also, I hope everyone liked how I changed the Zords' transformations. Instead of the Dinozords showing up and changing each time, I figured a permanent change would be easier and make more sense (fair warning). Also, I tried to find a way to literally have the Zords be changed by the "Power of Thunder." What did you think?

Also again, WHAT THE HECK SABAN! I have to say, as cringe worth as the opening act of Season 2 was, and it was rather cringe worthy at times, by far the worst bit of it was when Pirantishead started "playing a tune" for the Rangers while they finished their transformation and power up sequence. We get several scenes of the monster playing its fish-flute while waving its other hand around and making vaguely musical noises while the Rangers shout and have lightning and thunder echoing all around them. I know that it was most likely bad writing caused by Saban's need to use as much Zyu 2 footage as possible and to fill the time, but I just… I don't even.

Thanks for reading and don't forget to review,

Tenstar12


	44. Chapter 44

Magi Ranger

By: Tenstar12

AN: And here is the next chapter. The beginning of an arc that many of you have been waiting for. It's kinda random at the beginning. Fair warning. Just bear with me.

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or Power Rangers.

 **Chapter 44, in which Harry Has a Bad Dream That Soon Turns into a Real Life Nightmare…**

 ***Flash***

In the realm of the maker. So close to Maker, first time since the beginning.

 ***Flash***

New world. Different magic. Wrong magic. Wait… Not Master! Gold creature not Master!

 ***Flash***

Trapped… Wrong magic flowing through. Not-witch with wrong magic!

 ***Flash***

The Master! Not-witch dueling Master! Cannot harm Master! Will not harm Master! Must help Master!

 ***Flash***

Master is near again. Not-witch is learning from Master. Wrong magic twisted into right magic. Still wrong. Must not hurt Master, but wrong magic is too strong…

 ***Flash***

Master defeated not-witch again. Not-witch spoke with gold creature. Not-witch is afraid. Something is coming. Something strong…

 ***Flash***

New one is here. Evil. Strong. Stronger than not-witch.

"Rita Repulsa, you have failed at the task that was assigned to you."

"But my Lord, it wasn't my fault. The Power Rangers were-"

"I don't want to hear your excuses! You failed, and that is all that matters. Now you will pay the price for your failure."

"We'll just see about that! _Avada Kedavra_!"

Wrong magic, twisted into wrong dark magic. Green light. Nothing happens.

"Hmmm… an impressive spell, to be sure… and undoubtedly the work of this strange focus you have implanted in your scepter…"

"But… how did… that shouldn't be possible…"

"No matter, this only proves that you are not only incompetent, but traitorous as well. As your sentence, I return you to the prison that you only recently escaped!"

 ***Flash***

Not-witch is gone. Evil red not-Master holds me now.

"The Rangers were able to defeat my Pirantishead monster! How can this be! GAH! I sense Zordon's handiwork all over these new Zords of theirs. And that Purple Ranger…"

 ***Flash***

"Tell me, Goldar, where did that idiot find such a powerful artifact?"

"Of course, Excellency. It all started when she detected a magical surge unlike any other…"

 ***Flash***

"Hmmm… a pity that I cannot use it the same way she did. If one such as Rita was able to gain such great Power from it, I can only imagine how strong I would become. It is unfortunate that my Power is incompatible… The price I pay for my experiments I suppose. However, that doesn't mean that it is completely without use to me."

 ***Flash***

WRONG MAGIC! TOO MUCH! EVERYWHERE! No, not wrong-magic, POWER! Engulfing me! Changing me! Must… contact… the Master… the Master must know… Master… must… Master… Master?

Who is my Master?

 ***Flash***

-MR-

Harry sat straight up on his cot, panting and drenched in sweat. That was easily one of the strangest dreams he had ever had. And he had had a fair few strange ones in the months since his arrival in this dimension and joining the Power Rangers in their battles.

The Terror Toad alone had been the cause of more than one.

But this one wasn't like a normal dream. If nothing else, he could actually remember a lot of it. More often than not, Harry's dreams were disjointed, scraps of an image or two, a particular bit of weirdness recalled because it was exceptionally so. But a lot of this dream was practically imbedded in his mind.

His musing was interrupted by Alpha bursting into his room. "HARRY!" the android cried, sliding to a stop and waving one of his numerous devices around the room. "The Command Center's sensors detected an unusual energy pulse coming from the moon that terminated in the Command Center, specifically in this room. Are you alright?"

Harry blinked a few times before responding. "Yeah, Alpha, I'm alright. A bit confused, but alright."

Alpha paused in his frantic scanning and fixed his faceless gaze on the still ruffled Magi Ranger. "What do you mean, Harry? Why are you confused?"

Harry rolled his eyes and gave the robot a wry look. "Well, you did just burst in here and starting waving your techno-whatsis around…" Harry's voice trailed off as he began to consider his dream in a new light.

What if this unusually vivid dream was the result of whatever burst of energy that Alpha had reported? Would that even be possible? But who was he to decide what was possible and what wasn't with the magic of this world, or really even his last. He would be the first to admit that he had focused greatly on combat magics in his original world, with a few esoteric subjects that served a specific purpose that still tended to relate to combat or survival. It was the result of being thrust into a pivotal position in a war after all.

He needed to talk to Zordon.

With that thought in mind, Harry leapt out of his bed and dodged around the robot that was now as confused as Harry had been. The moment Harry burst into the main room of the Command Center, he started talking. "Zordon, is there any way you know of for dreams to be influenced by the Power? Alpha said there was an energy burst detected and I had a very… strange… dream… ah…"

This time, Harry trailed off because the other five Power Rangers were standing in the circle of computers before Zordon, each staring directly at him. It was only then that Harry realized that he had run out in front of the Rangers wearing nothing but his sleeping clothes and so was currently shirtless.

While he wasn't muscle bound like Jason or quite as fit as Tommy and Zack, Harry was certainly not in bad shape from his martial arts training combined with the fighting he had had to do since joining the Rangers. As such his torso was slightly toned, with just the slightest hint of a six pack to be seen.

Which quite effectively explained Trini's wide eyed look as she stared at him unblinkingly.

After a few seconds of silence, Jason rolled his eyes and snorted lightly, turning back to face the now chuckling Zordon, trying and failing to hide a slight smile of his own. Zack's eyes lit up in mirth as his gaze shot back and forth between Trini and Harry, most likely imagining the jokes and teasing he would get out of this moment in the days to come. Billy, much like Jason, turned back to face Zordon after a few seconds, though without the smile in his case. Kimberly, much to Harry's relief, took pity on them and snapped her fingers in Trini's face.

"Hello, Earth to Trini… Anyone there?" It seemed to take several seconds for Trini to snap back to reality, but when she did her cheeks lit up bright red.

Kimberly expressed her sympathy quite effectively. "I know you were having fun staring at your boyfriend's muscles, but we have important Power Ranger stuff to do right now."

Trini's blush deepened, spreading to encompass most of her face and run down her neck while Harry gained a blush of his own to match when Kimberly's words registered with him.

So much for Kimberly taking pity on them…

"Rangers," Zordon said once his mirth had died down. "I thank you all for coming so quickly, even so early in the day."

"Eh," Zack said with a shrug. "It wasn't too early, Zordon. In fact, it seems that Harry was the only one sleeping in today."

Harry shot a scowl at Zack even as he waved a hand over himself, causing his sleep pants to stretch upwards and transfigure into a shirt to match while socks and shoes formed over his feet between steps on his way to join the others.

Zordon nodded to Zack before continuing. "Nevertheless, your presence is appreciated. I called you here because, as Harry knows, Alpha detected an energy surge coming from the moon that was unlike anything we have detected before." The floating head turned more towards Harry now. "And to answer your question, Harry, there are a few spells and artifacts I know of that can influence the dreams of a target, but I do not think that that is what we are dealing with here."

Now, Harry was confused again. "You don't?"

"No, I do not." Zordon replied with a shake of his head. "The main reason for this is that the burst of energy was not entirely made up of Power. In fact, the composition of the pulse has only been seen once before in the history of Grid Magic."

There was silence in the command center, other than the constant background beeps and such of course. All of the Rangers were silently dreading Zordon's explanation. After all, each time he referenced something that hasn't been seen before, or at least in a long time, it always spelled bad news for the Rangers. Whether it was Mutitus and Lokar, Cyclopsis, or the arrival of Lord Zedd himself, rare magical occurrences or unique energy signatures were typically rather bad for the Power Rangers.

Finally, Kimberly couldn't take the silence and asked the question on everyone's minds. "So… when was it seen before?"

Zordon just chuckled again. "It was seen only recently with the first appearance of the Magi Ranger and his continued battles against the forces of evil."

Everyone's attention now shifted to Harry, even Alpha as he finally made his way out of Harry's room, device still in hand. On his part, Harry's mind was racing once again. If the magical pulse was the same as Harry's spells since he became the Magi Ranger, that meant that someone was using his brand of magic alongside the Power. Rita didn't intentionally do that while she had the Elder Wand, merely twisting Power into a mockery of his type of magic or casting spells with Power through the Elder Wand, which added a hint of his type of magic to them.

So where was this individual getting the ability to use Wizarding magic? And how did his strange dream tie in, if at all?

"So what did this pulse do? You said it ended up in the Command Center, so what kind of effect did it have?" Jason seemed to have recovered from the surprise faster than the other Rangers, certainly faster than the still reeling Harry, and posed his question to Zordon.

The wizard hummed for a moment before responding. "Largely, it seemed similar to a message spell, though very crude and with Harry's brand of magic laced throughout. From what Alpha and I can tell, there were no negative effects to be had, though only time can truly tell."

"Alpha said that the pulse ended in my room," Harry said slowly. "That can't be a coincidence…"

"What do you mean, Harry?" Trini asked, stepping closer to him even as her cheeks regained a bit of their earlier hue.

Harry shrugged. "Well, for starters, I made that room by expanding the small amount of space between the door and the original wall behind it through the use of a runic array. From outside that space, that entire room is really only a fraction of an inch long and only as wide as the door. For the message to end there, it would almost have to be intentional. Aside from that, I had a very vivid dream just before Alpha woke me up. If it was a message spell, that dream could have been the message."

"Ok," Jason responded. "But why would someone on the moon be sending you a magical message?"

Harry hesitated for a moment before responding. This idea was crazy, but it was the only thing he could think of that made sense. "I think… I think it could have been the Elder Wand…"

"Wait, wait," Zack said, waving his hands frantically back and forth as he did so. "Slow down here, man. Are you trying to tell us that you think that a stick, granted a magical stick, but a stick is somehow sending you a message?"

Harry shrugged again. "I know it sounds crazy, but wands are said to choose their wizard in my world. Some think that that just means different wands react better to some wizards than others, leading to them 'choosing' the ones that they work better with, but others insist on a certain level of sentience in the wands. Besides that, the Elder Wand is known to have changed those it works best with as its current Master is defeated by the next one. Even ignoring the fact that it was crafted by Death itself, that almost means it would have to have some kind of limited intelligence to it, right?"

The other Rangers exchanged glances and shifted uneasily, none of them saying anything. Zordon finally broke the silence. "Whether or not magic wands from your world are sentient or not isn't the issue here, Harry. Tell us about this dream you had. If it was indeed a message, then the contents may be of vital importance."

"Unless it was about Trini being in the same position you were in earlier. Then you can keep the details to yourself." Zack quipped, smirking when Trini and Harry both lit up into almost identical blushes again.

Taking a deep breath and doing his best to ignore the snickering Rangers, Harry began to relate his dream. "The entire thing was rather… disjointed, I guess. Like it was jumping from one place to another. There weren't much in the way of images at first either. Just feelings really, and a few words. After the first bit, things came into more focus, visually. I could make out Rita and Goldar. And then I saw Zedd's arrival. Rita tried to hit him with a killing curse, and he survived."

"Woah!" Zack near shouted, not alone in his surprise as the other Rangers had equal looks of shock on their faces. "Zedd took your insta-death spell and nothing happened?"

Zordon just hummed again. "I cannot say that that is terribly surprising. Lord Zedd conducted a number of experiments with Grid Power, many of which were on himself. The result of these tests are shown in his current form, but they also granted him a form of immortality. It is possible that they also rendered him immune to the killing curse."

Harry shrugged yet again. It wasn't like he was planning on trying to throw an AK at Zedd any time soon, but he supposed it was a good piece of intel to have so they wouldn't try to rely on that tactic in the future if things got to the point he was willing to try dark magic. "Well, after that, Zedd banished Rita into a little clay pot and blasted her out of the palace, but we knew that already."

Zack snorted. "Nintey-nine bottles of slime on the wall…"

Harry ignored him and continued. "Then Zedd was ranting about how we beat Pirantishead, and interrogating Goldar about where Rita got the Elder Wand. I remember him saying something about how he couldn't use the Elder Wand himself, but that he had another use… And then…"

Harry trailed off for several seconds until Trini put a hand on his arm. "And then what, Harry?"

Harry's brow creased in concentration. "Pain… I mean, not really super painful, but like an echo of pain and… wrongness. There were a few words in there too, but… I had a lot of trouble focusing on them… I think I was already waking up then… Something about a master… maybe… I'm not sure…" Many of the smaller details of the dream were fading already. He was sure he could recover them with a bit of Occlumency and meditation, but for now, they were out of reach.

Harry looked back up at Zordon. "And that's it. After that I woke up, Alpha busted into my room and, well, all this happened." Harry gestured to the Command Center around him as he spoke, determinedly avoiding Zack's gaze, sure that the Black ranger wouldn't be able to pass up another tease if he didn't.

"While I cannot say for sure if this dream was really the result of the proto-message spell Alpha detected, I can say that it is at least a possibility. Whether or not it came from the Elder Wand… I cannot make any sort of deduction based on what I know."

"But if we assume that it did come from the Elder Wand, what could it mean?" Harry didn't know why he was pursuing his idea so earnestly. Something deep within him was telling him he was right though.

Zordon paused for a moment before sighing. "Then it is possible that Lord Zedd has indeed done something with the Elder Wand and we should be prepared. If he was somehow able to use it to enhance his own Power or one of his monsters, then we may be in for another very difficult fight. And very soon at that."

None of the Rangers knew how to respond to that.

-MR-

A few hours later found Harry and the other Rangers once more at the Angel Grove Youth Center. It had been two days since Ernie's impromptu party, but there were still signs of it here and there. This was mostly because Ernie had been forced to close the Youth Center the day before due to the overall damage to the city, or more specifically, to the roads.

It seemed that, while the Megazord hadn't actually been commanded on any kind of a rampage by Pirantishead, it had passed through the city proper more than once while traveling to where Pirantishead had been battling the Rangers at any given time. It had almost carefully moved around the buildings, but its massive footsteps had still managed to leave a trail of destruction that had to be dealt with before Angel Grove could return to its normal activity levels.

What this meant was that many buildings had been closed down while repairs were made, and one of those buildings was Angel Grove High School. As a result of this, the Youth Center was abnormally crowded for around noon on a Monday, so Harry had stepped behind the counter to help out Ernie and to pick up some extra hours. When the Rangers had first arrived, Trini, Zack, and Kimberly had also stepped up, delivering the lunch orders that Harry and Ernie prepared. In an attempt to help in his own way, mostly because Ernie felt that the three already volunteering was enough for serving food, Jason had taken it upon himself to perform an impromptu Karate demonstration with Billy as his assistant in order to entertain some of the younger teens and kids that school closings had affected.

And so it went for the first hour or so.

In between shifts at the stove, which he shared with Ernie so neither would get too overheated standing over the flattop, Harry would take orders, mix up various smoothies, and watch Jason and Billy's demonstration. It was actually rather impressive despite being basically made up on the spot.

They started off with Jason and Billy both running through forms, the Blue Ranger demonstrating his own much improved martial arts ability in the process. Then, Jason really drew in the excitable children by breaking a few boards. Billy then doing the same brought in a few of the more reclusive kids. Seeing a nerdy looking teen, indeed one with exactly that reputation, like Billy doing the same things as Jason really inspired a few of those kids like seeing Jason alone wouldn't have.

After most of the lunch crowd had either already eaten their fill and left or had been pulled over to the martial arts demonstration where some of Jason's other students had gotten in on the act, Ernie let the three servers go. Predictably, Zack immediately ran over to join in the demo while Kimberly and Trini took it upon themselves to bring water to Jason, Billy, and the others. Harry continued to swap out with Ernie at the stove for another hour, and then things got interesting.

"Aiya! Si Aiya!"

Harry perked up, hearing Tommy's signature kiai from where he was flipping burgers. Seeing this, Ernie chuckled at him. "Go ahead, Harry," the good natured man said. "I've got things from here."

Harry shot Ernie a smile as he stripped off his apron and vaulted over the countertop in his excitement. Hearing Tommy like that while he knew Jason was doing a karate demo could mean only one thing: a rematch.

As Harry came to the railing bordering the gym floor of the Youth Center, he saw that his assumption was correct. Over the heads of the much more enthusiastic crowd, Harry could see Jason and Tommy's heads bobbing around as they fought, accompanied by each fighter's kiai at random intervals. But that's about all he could see.

Deciding to get closer, Harry made his way over to the stairs and began squeezing his way through the crowd however he could. With the schools closed, the Youth Center was far more crowded than it had ever been on a day without an event of some kind. This made Harry's progress incredibly slow and more circuitous than directly toward the impromptu sparring ring. As Harry slid sideways once more between two teens, both of whom were standing on tiptoe in an attempt to see more than the tops of the fighters' heads, he sighed. Unless he was willing to resort to shoving people out of the way or using magic, he had a feeling that he wouldn't be seeing too much of the match. Still, it wasn't like it was vitally important he see the match, right?

Then Harry felt a surprisingly strong burst of Power, quickly followed by the members of the crowd who could clearly see the match letting out a collective cheer. His eyes went wide even as he heard Zack's voice calling out over the crowd. "Judge's call, one point to Jason!"

It was the first time he had heard the Black Ranger making a score call since he had clued in to the spar, and the fact that it followed a burst of Power worried him. There was no reason for Jason to be calling up Power intentionally, especially not in a friendly spar, and he was too noble (read stubborn) about using Power for anything less than battling evil. The only explanation Harry could come up with was that the extra Power the Rangers had now that Zordon had warned them about.

Things just got vitally important enough for him to use some magic.

With a flick of his wrist and a wandless summoning charm, Harry called his wand forth from the modified holster on his right forearm. After Zedd's first monster had been defeated, Harry finally set aside his other projects and took the time to modify the Elder Wand thigh holster he had been given by Death to fit his Power Coin Wand. It had taken some doing to get the much larger holster to fit his arm instead of his leg. It did come with some unexpected benefits though. Once he actually got the holster on and his wand into it, it seemed to already have disillusionment charms built in, hiding it from the casual observer, meaning he wasn't limited to long sleeve shirts. In addition, there were a few shielding charms built in, which helped protect his wand from damage during physical combat, which was much more common in this dimension than his last one.

Though since his wand was effectively made of metal that didn't really matter too terribly much, but it was the principle of the thing.

Waving his wand subtly, Harry cast a mild Muggle Repelling charm on himself, and replaced his wand in the holster. The effect, though subtle, was instantaneous. Without knowing why, the crowd began shifting around him, each and every person nearby moving away bit by bit and thus allowing Harry clear passage to the front of the crowd where he could see the match before he disabled the charm wandlessly.

Jason and Tommy were once more exchanging blows while Zack watched from opposite where Harry stood, excitement clear on his face while the two competitors were entirely focused on the match. As Harry watched, Jason launched a rapid fire series of jabs, each accompanied by a small burst of Power. In fact, every move that Jason made was at least slightly enhanced and gave off enough Power for Harry to sense, even if there was no visible effect. Luckily.

It seemed that Tommy had just figured out that something was wrong too, probably after blocking Jason's jabs and wincing as more than one hit much harder than he had expected as he had shifted his defensive strategy. Instead of straight up blocking Jason's attacks, he began deflecting and dodging them. This tactic meant that Tommy was moving around a lot more than Jason was, meaning he would probably tire out well before Jason, but with the Red Ranger throwing Power-infused hits, there wasn't much other choice.

Not that Tommy knew why the hits were so strong. In fact, Harry was willing to bet that he was the only one present that actually knew what was going on, and that could end up being dangerous both to Tommy's health and to the Rangers' secret identities. If Jason were to go a little too far, and his competitive spirit might just make that an inevitability, he might do something too superhuman to explain away, and that would be it.

The problem was, how was he to do it? Any magic to effect the whole crowd would have to be very overpowered, which would probably draw on the Power inside him even if he didn't intend to, which would then result in the spell itself being rather flashier than necessary. That would serve much the same purpose as Jason's unintentional bursts of Power.

Stupid Grid influence…

Then, as Harry watched, things got a bit more serious. Tommy managed to deflect one of Jason's punches away and then, using the opening he had just created, landed a punch of his own to Jason's midsection. While the Red Ranger was winded, Tommy grabbed his still outstretched arm and flipped him over his shoulder and onto the padded floor.

"Judge's call, one point to Tommy!" Zack was quick to do his job, but Harry could see the beginnings of suspicion in his eyes as he watched Jason practically leap back to his feet, showing little to no effect from Tommy's attack. When the Black Ranger then looked across the ring and caught Harry's tense expression, his own face shifted to match.

The only problem was, Zack had to keep up the illusion that nothing was wrong. If the judge for the match did something to call attention to anything abnormal going on, then it only increased the chances of someone noticing, which could only lead to trouble. As it was, everyone was too caught up in the excitement of what some were calling a grudge rematch, a thought that might have been more fitting if Tommy hadn't been the Green Ranger. Despite his lack of Power, there was still a strong camaraderie between Jason and Tommy.

The next round started with a blast from the past as Jason lead off with a trio of tornado kicks that Tommy backstepped and ducked. On the third kick, Tommy went lower, attempting to sweep Jason's feet out from under him. In reaction, Jason, in mid recovery from his kick, hopped up over Tommy's sweep with one foot. When he hit the ground again, Jason brought his feet together and leapt up and over Tommy's head, flipping and twisting over him before landing and delivering a straight kick from behind that sent the former Ranger sprawling.

Crap. That move, specifically the flip jump, was almost pure Power and the levels of Power Jason was letting off now told Harry that the Red Ranger was probably so focused on the match that he didn't realize what was going on. His determination to fight hard and do everything that he could to win was drawing up more and more Power with every move. "Judge's call, one point to Jason!" Zack was looking concerned now as opposed to just tense.

Glancing around again, Harry caught sight of Kimberly, Trini, and Billy off to the left side of the ring. Kimberly was, predictably, knelt down and was talking to Tommy as he slowly climbed back to his feet after the unexpectedly strong hit from Jason. Billy was staring at a watch, most likely keeping time for the match. Trini was watching the match with concern on her face, but her eyes flicked over to Harry after a few moments.

Thinking quickly, Harry gestured to Billy, pointed at his empty hand, the same hand that Billy held the watch in, and then drew his thumb across his neck. Trini's brow scrunched for a moment before glancing toward Billy, her eyes widened when she figured out what Harry wanted and leaned over to whisper in Billy's ear.

By this point, Tommy had regained his feet and he and Jason were squaring up again. Zack was taking a bit longer this time, clearly wanting to say something to Jason, but knowing that he really couldn't. Then, from behind Tommy, Billy's voice rang out. "TIME!"

Tommy and Jason both jumped, clearly caught off guard by the Blue Ranger's interruption, but the dispersal of the Power built up in Jason was just what Harry had hoped would happen. So, as the crowd grumbled and began to break up a bit, none of them really believing that the match had gone on as long as it should have, which it technically hadn't, the Rangers, current and former, gathered together in the middle of the padded ring.

"Billy," Jason asked, panting slightly as he did. "Why did you end the match early? There's no way that was the full time." Tommy was panting as well, but he looked more relieved than anything else. Probably just happy to not be facing an overpowered and unaware Jason anymore.

Billy shrugged. "I was watching the time when Trini told me that I had to call it early."

Jason turned to face the Yellow Ranger, one brow arced. She met his gaze easily before responding. "Something was going on, Jason. Harry just confirmed it when he signaled for us to end the match."

While it probably had to be said, Harry had to repress a wince. While Jason's attitude was much improved over his former animosity, the Magi Ranger was still more than a bit wary. There were some basic differences in the way the two saw things that always threatened to bring that animosity back full strength. With the threat of Lord Zedd hovering over them, an evil that they still didn't quite understand yet, any strife within the team could cause more trouble than it used to when it was just the arguably less threatening Rita they were up against.

Nonetheless, Harry nodded, glancing around a bit before throwing up a wandless Muffliato and responding. "You remember when Zordon told us about the extra Power you guys all have within you now and the potential side effects of that? Well, you were all but glowing you were letting off so much Power."

Jason just looked stunned, but it was Zack that spoke up. "Is that what was happening? I just figured he had gotten a bit too intense. Especially when Tommy started dodging instead of blocking. He and Jason have always been fairly evenly matched in the past…"

Harry shook his head. "No offense on this Tommy, but that was when Tommy was still a Ranger. Since he's been cut off from the Power, and Jason still has it, the advantage definitely lies with him. And that's before he starts jumping and flipping around like he's in costume."

Recovering from his shock, Jason looked thoughtful for a moment before sighing, awkwardly rubbing at the back of his head. "I did do that, didn't I? Wow… I didn't even think about it at the time, but that was really bad, wasn't it?"

Kimberly chuckled briefly. "Maybe, but it was pretty impressive. Maybe I'll get you up on the balance beam one of these days, eh?"

Jason snorted, shaking his head as his leader's personality reasserted itself. "I really doubt that, Kimberly, but all joking aside, we have a real problem here. We need to figure out some way to get this under control, and fast."

The Rangers all nodded, sans Tommy who still just looked happy that the match was over. He had gotten way more than he had expected in that fight, that was for sure.

"Well, we can ask Zordon what he thinks," Harry said, drawing everyone's attention back to him. "But I can probably tell you what he'll say based on my experience in training with the Power: practice, practice, and more practice."

Harry's statement was true enough, especially lately. While he had initially been learning all sorts of techniques and the like for the use of Grid Power, before he had begun banking up Power for the aborted attack on Rita's palace Zordon had just had him repeating his control exercises exclusively. Since what the Rangers really seemed to need in this position was more control, Harry felt that it was a fairly safe bet that this is just what Zordon would suggest.

Jason nodded. "Then we should probably try and set up a day we can all just spar for a while. See where we are in controlling this new Power and try and do better at keeping it suppressed. We may not have any other choice."

The Rangers nodded, but Tommy smirked. "I, ah, I hope you guys won't think badly of me if I don't join you. One time in the ring with one of you guys supercharged was more than enough."

Harry rolled his eyes as the other Rangers chuckled at Tommy's attempt at humor, but before further conversation could be made, Harry noticed Bulk and Skull come stumbling into the Youth Center.

Stumbling, because they looked like someone had taken great care in beating the ever loving heck out of them. Skull was sporting a black eye and was walking with a more exaggerated limp than Bulk, while the larger bully had a black eye, a fat lip, and seemed to have done something to his right wrist if the way he was cradling it to his chest was any indication. Both teens' clothes were ruffled and dirty and Bulk actually appeared to be missing one of his shoes.

Ernie, spotting the two, ducked behind the counter before coming back up with a first aid kit and making his way over to him. "What happened to you two?"

Bulk and Skull glanced at each other briefly before Bulk, as usual, puffed himself up and started speaking in his loudest voice, the better to draw more attention to himself. "We got into a bit of a fight in the park against some of that Zedd creep's new putty guys."

Naturally, this drew a fair bit of attention to them as Zedd was quite the hot topic in Angel Grove. Bulk and Skull both seemed to revel in the extra attention, though Skull was most likely just playing along with Bulk like he normally did. Shrugging, Harry dismissed his spell and walked with the other Rangers closer to the two. If nothing else, Bulk and Skull were almost guaranteed to embarrass themselves before this whole ordeal was over, so it would at least be good for a laugh.

Even if Harry was still baffled by their strange tendency to get covered in food…

While Ernie did what he could to patch them up, which was basically give them a few band aids and a pair of ice packs, Bulk was digging himself deeper into his story. "Oh yeah, there we were, minding our own business, when, like, ten of those guys just appeared! We, of course, were able to fight them off easily, but they just kept coming."

"Yeah," Skull said, striking a faux-fighting pose. "We were all like, Hiyah! And then, Wazzah!" Skull threw a few punches into the air before attempting a kick and quickly losing his balance and falling onto his backside.

Bulk continued on with his story, unperturbed by his friend's fall. "And then, that Purple Ranger showed up!" Harry quirked his eyebrow, exchanging a few glances with the other Rangers who were all struggling to contain their laughter, along with most of the crowd as Bulk continued to weave his tale. "Yeah, it turns out that he was the whole reason the putties showed up in the first place. So of course we had to save him from the putties."

"Wouldn't the Magi Ranger have just used his magic to get rid of the putties?" a younger boy in the crowd said. While the older members of the crowd had figured out that Bulk was as full of it as always, the younger ones were still quite entranced by the story.

"Yeah! The Magi Ranger would have beat all those putties up! There's nothing that can beat him!" This time there was no mistaking the voice that spoke up. Zack lightly elbowed Harry in the side while Trini buried her face in his other shoulder to hide her giggles when little Marie Higgens stomped her way up to the front of the crowd, hands on her hips and all attitude.

Bulk was slightly taken aback, probably because he wasn't used to someone that much smaller than him actually standing up to him, but he rallied quickly and leaned over Marie slightly. "I think that I would know better than you, little girl, since I was there and all."

Marie just glared that much harder. "I don't care what you say, you big dummy! The Magi Ranger wouldn't need your help to beat some stupid putties!"

Bulk matched the child's glare before snorting and using his oversized stomach to bump her back away from him and then turning his attention to the rest of the crowd. Luckily, Marie just stumbled back a few steps before Ernie caught her.

"Anyway, as I was saying before being so rudely interrupted," Bulk started grandstanding again, only to be cut off once more, this time by Harry.

"You know, Bulk," the wizard said as he stepped closer, glaring at the bully as he did. "I seem to recall you talking about being saved from some of those putties just a few days ago. In fact, I believe you said that it was the Magi Ranger who saved you then, wasn't it?"

Bulk's face started to turn red as he processed Harry's words. When he didn't immediately have a response, the crowd began to break up, several of them loudly proclaiming that they should have known that those two were full of it, which pulled away some of the younger individuals as well. This led to the bully sputtering angrily while Harry, now with the other Rangers standing close behind him, merely waited.

Finally, Bulk regained his ability to speak. "Shut it, Potter! What do you know anyway?"

It was Jason who responded, stepping up next to Harry with his arms crossed. "What we all know is that you're making things up, Bulk. We also all know that you don't have near the fighting skill you like to pretend you do. Why don't you just tell us all what really happened to you?"

Bulk's red face started to turn purple, reminding Harry not so fondly of his Uncle Vernon, and, of course, the bully's anger made him do something especially stupid. "Oh yeah!" Bulk said, looking around frantically before his eyes widened and a smirk lit up his face. "Well, I'll show you! Come on, Skull!" Grabbing his counterpart and dragging him along, Bulk shoved his way through the remains of the crowd, most of which had just stuck around to watch the confrontation, and stopped next to a stack of boards that the karate students had been breaking before the sparring match.

Snatching one up, Bulk shoved it into Skull's hands. "Hold this, Skull. I'll show those nerds who has the supreme fighting skills!"

Skull, never one to disagree with Bulk, held the board out in front of him. The bigger bully then took a fighting stance, or at least an imitation of one, and, with a loud and frankly ridiculous cry, Bulk punched the board. With his bad arm.

The first, and most obvious, thing was that the board pointedly did not break. Then, Bulk's eyes began tearing up before he let out a screech of pain and cradled his swollen wrist to his body. Of course, he then immediately began staggering around, which resulted in him stumbling into Skull and sending the two sprawling to the ground in a heap. And of course when they hit the ground, they managed to trip up a passing teen carrying a pair of milkshakes, which then spilled all over them.

Harry just shook his head as he once more watched the two get covered in a consumable. "You know, after it's happened so many times, I just can't bring myself to care as much anymore."

Zack smiled and patted him on the shoulder. "Well done, Harry, you've nearly reached the point of full acceptance. It's only a matter of time before you'll be laughing along with the rest of us."

After that, Jason and Tommy restarted the Martial Arts demo again, thankfully staying away from any more spars lest Jason's competitive nature cause another potential disaster. However, it wasn't more than ten minutes later that Harry's communicator went off.

Glancing around and seeing nobody was really paying attention to him, Harry moved over to a wall and put up a wandless Muffliato before answering. "I read you, Zordon."

"Harry," Zordon responded immediately, his voice serious. "Alpha has detected a similar energy signature to the one from this morning."

"You mean another proto-message spell?"

"No, Harry. We believe this to be the source of the original pulse, and it is currently in the middle of Downtown Angel Grove."

"Crap," Harry cursed, looking around the Youth Center. While the martial arts demo wasn't drawing quite as much attention as it had been, with Jason and Tommy running through the katas, there were still a few people watching eagerly. "I don't know if the others can get away very easily…"

"That is why we contacted you, Harry." Zordon responded. "Aside from the fact that half of the other Rangers aren't wearing the communicators at present, we are hoping you may be able to enable the entire team to slip away and deal with this potential threat."

Harry paused for a moment. Was Zordon actually asking him to cast a spell on the civilians in the Youth Center? Wow, Jason wasn't gonna be too crazy about that, now was he. Still, needs must… "Alright, Zordon, just cue up the teleportation and I'll get the rest of the team."

"Very well, Harry, and thank you."

Harry sighed as he lowered his arm. Time to tick of the Red Ranger before pointing him at whatever threat Zedd had cooked up for them this time. Once more summoning his wand out of its holster, Harry first hit himself with a notice-me-not charm. Then, after a moment of thought and gathering a bit of Power to help fuel his spell, Harry cast a carefully targeted Confundus charm on the crowd. Slowly, mostly because he had made the spell intentionally gradual so as to avoid alerting anyone it hadn't hit, the people watching Jason and Tommy's lost interest and began wandering off. After around five minutes, the crowd was completely gone, all of them having wandered off to other pursuits, and Harry dismissed his spells and joined the other Rangers.

"Well, that's odd…" Trini said. "Where did everyone go?"

Harry winced a bit. Here goes nothing. "I cast a spell on them to distract them. We've-"

"You did what!?" Jason hissed, rounding on him. "What possessed you to do something like that? I mean, using magic on civilians like that-"

"Jason," Harry cut him off, raising his left arm and tapping on his communicator. "We have a situation."

"What?" the Red Ranger asked, even as Tommy and the other Rangers tensed up.

"Zordon contacted me, and he and Alpha think the source of that energy pulse from this morning is in Angel Grove right now." Harry reported, watching the anger in Jason's face fade, only to be replaced by determination. "We have to go."

Jason nodded. "Right, let's go Rangers."

As Jason turned to lead the others out of the main room of the Youth Center, Harry noticed Tommy with a rather sad expression on his face. "Hey," he said, walking up to his sensei. "Are you alright?"

Hearing him, Kimberly turned around and came back, putting a hand on Tommy's shoulder as the former Ranger sighed. "Yeah, I just… I guess it just really hit me how much I miss being a Ranger. I mean… I should be with you guys right now, and…"

Tommy sighed again and Kimberly wrapped him in a hug. For his part, Harry really didn't know what to say. Zordon had already told them that there wasn't any way to recharge the Green Power Coin, and in all honesty, it probably wasn't a good idea to even try at the moment. If the original Dinozords had been so easily outclassed by Zedd's first monster, it only stood to reason that the Dragonzord would be similarly outclassed. And Zordon didn't have a massive stockpile of Power saved up to supercharge and transform it anymore.

"I'm sorry, Tommy," Kimberly was saying as she stepped back from the hug. "I know you want to be out there with us again, and maybe we can figure something out in the future, but for now we have to go."

Harry blinked. Well, that was rather abrupt… Tommy seemed to think so as well if the somewhat shocked look on his face was anything to go by, but he nodded all the same. As Kimberly turned to leave, the former Ranger turned to Harry, still looking shocked and a bit confused, to which Harry just shrugged before waving as he turned to leave as well.

When Harry stepped out of the main room of the Youth Center and into the locker hallway that lead to the entrance, he found the five core Rangers standing in formation and ready to morph. "Are you ready, Harry?" Jason asked, looking more than a bit eager to get going.

Harry just stared.

"Seriously?" he asked after several seconds of staring. "You guys are going to morph right here, in the middle of the Youth Center, barely out of sight from a bunch of people, including Bulk and Skull who have already announced that they intend to discover the Rangers' identities? Are you trying to blow the secret?"

The Rangers shifted uneasily for a moment until Zack spoke up. "Hey, calm down, Harry. The Grid protects our identities, right? So we're in the clear."

Harry just sighed. "That doesn't really mean that you should make it a bigger job than it needs to be, ya know…"

Just then, Bulk and Skull came stomping through the archway, or more like Bulk stomped and Skull half limped, half scurried after him. As he passed through, the oversized bully shoved Harry out of his way, most likely just because he could and not because Harry was actually blocking him. "Watch it, Potter."

Harry stumbled from the unexpected shove and was only saved from falling to the ground because Trini happened to be standing right in his path and caught him. Harry smiled at her as he regained his balance with her help. "Thanks, Trini." After getting a smile and a nod in return, Harry looked back toward Jason. "You see what I mean, though? That just proved my point. Anyone can walk out here at the wrong time and your cover is blown."

Jason sighed and rolled his eyes. "Alright then, what do you suggest?"

Harry gestured for the Rangers to follow. "Come on, there's an alleyway behind the building that I've warded for privacy. I use it to apparate to and from so I won't be seen. We can morph there."

-MR-

A quick walk and even quicker morph later, the Rangers were in suit and had teleported to downtown Angel Grove a short distance away from the energy source.

"Come on, Rangers," Jason shouted, leading the charge with Harry and the others just behind him. "It should be just up ahead!"

As the Rangers ran, Harry had a few things running through his head. Firstly, he could feel the monster's Power. It was very powerful, moreso than any monster he had felt to date, but it was more the type of Power that bothered him than the amount. A monster like Pirantishead had a lot of Power, but it was static, more focused toward its physical capabilities. This monster's Power was closer to the Power wielded by Rita, Zedd, Zordon, and Harry himself, meaning that it was able to cast spells, so there was really no telling what it would be capable of.

The second thing on his mind was the utter lack of obvious destruction. The monster had been located by Zordon nearly fifteen minutes before. Usually there would be billowing smoke, various explosions, screams of fleeing citizens, or at least sirens from emergency vehicles. But so far, there was absolutely nothing to be seen.

And third, why the heck hadn't they teleported in closer to the monster's actual location?

Finally, the Rangers rounded the corner of one of the taller office buildings and found themselves staring at an ornamental fountain placed in front of the building. Spaced around the fountain were several concrete block bench seats and a few trees in concrete planters. And standing on the near side of the fountain, facing the water, was the monster.

At first glance, it wasn't too impressive. But then Harry realized that was because it was completely shrouded in a dark cloak and hood.

It was clearer than ever before that the strange mix of Power and magic that was so similar to his own was coming from this monster. As the Rangers skidded to a halt in a line, Harry spoke up. "Be careful with this one, guys. I can feel its Power. It's definitely a Spellcaster too, so there's no telling what it's capable of."

"Right," Jason nodded, drawing his blade blaster, a move quickly copied by the other Rangers before they switched them into blade configuration. "Let's do this guys!"

Harry and the Rangers charged the still unidentified monster, Harry summoning the Magi Staff as he went, only for the Mighty Morphin' Rangers to come to a sudden stop when they hit an invisible barrier. Harry continued on for a few more steps undeterred before realizing that he was on his own and turning back to the others.

"Harry!" Trini shouted as she and the other Rangers brought their blade blasters down on the invisible barrier to no effect. "We can't get through."

"Indeed…" a breathy voice said, coming from the monster unless Harry missed his guess. "I cannot have them interfering."

"What…?" Harry asked, turning to face the monster once again.

"You and I have business to attend to, Mr. Potter." The monster said again, still facing the fountain, but its voice coming out much deeper this time.

Harry took a half step back in shock. "How do you know my name?" he demanded, half glancing around for any nearby civilians who might be listening to the conversation.

"Why wouldn't I know the name of the legendary Boy-Who-Lived, the Man-Who-Won?" it asked again, this time in an all too familiar voice with a trace of a hiss.

Harry's eyes went wide. "What the… that's not possible…"

The monster began to turn to face him, showing that its front was just as covered by the cloak as the back and its face was hidden by shadows beneath its hood. "I had actually begun to fear that you wouldn't show, Harry." the monster's voice was back to the breathy one it had first spoken in which, now that Harry was in the right mindset, was just as familiar as the third one.

The monster lifted its arms up, revealing human-looking hands wearing what looked like black gloves coming from its billowing sleeves, and pushed its hood off. Its head was featureless, looking like little more than a smooth, black, wooden mask with the grain clearly visible and glowing eyes. Eyes that were currently glowing blue, yet shifting to green.

"It's good to finally see you again, Harry Potter."

The monster was now speaking in Harry's voice.

-MR-

AN: So yeah, there we go. A lot of important things happened in this chapter actually. At least, a lot of things I'm gonna be building on in later chapters.

Also, I cannot express how happy I am to have a chapter that is a more comfortable length for me. I felt bad cutting you guys so short on the last few.

We got a bit more mundane stuff this chapter too. I feel like it's been too long since I've done any of that. While this might be because it has been so much longer between postings, I still felt like it was past time to throw in a bit more of the day to day of being a super hero based of 90's ideology. : )

Also, I have no idea where Marie came from. I totally didn't plan on including her again after her appearance earlier in the story, but she decided to join the crowd in the Youth Center and stand up for her hero when Bulk started running his mouth. Go figure.

Also, any thought on what the monster might be? I feel like its fairly obvious, but I never know. : )

Thanks for reading and don't forget to review,

Tenstar12


	45. Chapter 45

Magi Ranger

By: Tenstar12

AN: Holy reviews! Last chapter tied for 4th place for the most reviews in a single chapter. Stay Morpinominal!

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or Power Rangers.

 **Chapter 45, or Battle for Destiny**

Harry kept his gaze fixed on the monster before him, staring into the glowing eyes set into the otherwise featureless wooden head. His mind was racing even as the other Rangers tried in vain to penetrate the barrier keeping them from the battle to come. "So tell me," Harry said after a moment. "Did Zedd really do what I think he did?"

The monster chuckled, still using Harry's voice. "As I am not currently using Legilimency, and we both know it would be nigh useless against you anyway, I cannot say for certain. However," The monster's voice now changed to the same deeper one it had first used and its eyes shifted to yellow. "As I am more than passingly familiar with how you think, I feel that I can assure you that your suspicions are indeed true. I am, or rather was, the Elder Wand."

At this, Harry heard a few small gasps coming from the other Rangers, their surprise momentarily overcoming their intent on reaching him. Harry himself, however, was too focused on the monster to see just who had reacted.

The monster began pacing now, walking a few steps one way before turning sharply, its robes flaring out around it before walking back the other direction and repeating the process. "You see, Harry, I have always been at least somewhat sentient. From the first moment of my creation by Death, I was given the mandate of ultimate loyalty to the strongest. And so, each time my bearer was defeated, so too did my loyalty change to the one to defeat them. All this in the hopes of finding the foretold Master of Death, who would unite me with the other artifacts and prove themselves to be worthy of my eternal loyalty.

"It was a simple existence, but as time passed, my awareness grew ever so slowly. I began retaining information and knowledge as my consciousness developed, but still my directive remained the same."

"You were searching for the strongest bearer," Harry mused, his grip tightening on his staff. "But things didn't always work out like that."

The monster shook his head fiercely, its voice changing back to the vaguely hissing one even as its eyes changed to red. "No… betrayal, guile, the knife in the dark… all these things caused a great many shifts in my loyalty. And there was nothing I could do about it. Each time, the loss of progress was nearly offensive to me. But I was effectively a stick. A magical stick with a slowly developing consciousness, but a stick nonetheless."

The monster turned to face Harry again, its eyes now green as Harry's own voice returned. "And then I was found by a wandcrafter who took the time to study me instead of use me. Perhaps not the most powerful wizard, but certainly one of the most brilliant. He sought to find a way to recreate my power in his own work, but before that could happen, I was stolen by Gellert Grindelwald."

The monster almost seemed to shudder for a moment, its eyes yellow again and its voice deep. "Such strength, such ruthlessness, I had not felt the like in all my existence. Grindelwald did a great many things with my strength, so great that, had circumstances not been what they were, he might have come to rule all."

Harry grit his teeth. "And then Dumbledore defeated him."

The monster nodded, eyes back to blue and voice once more whispery. "Yes, Albus Dumbledore was weaker than Grindelwald by a small margin, but he made up for that lack of strength through technique and esoteric knowledge. It showed me that not all strength came from pure power alone, and gave me hope that the true Master might have been found at last, especially when he came into possession of the cloak… And then he gave it to you."

Harry could almost feel the anger radiating off of the monster as its eyes shifted to red and it began hissing as its voice changed to that of Harry's old nemesis once more. "I felt a certain amount of betrayal. I am sure that, had I been capable of such emotion at the time, I would have rejoiced when the old fool was killed by my next wielder, although not before you took true mastery from him.

"It was a bit of a double-edged sword I suppose. My loyalty was with you as you had disarmed Dumbledore, but Voldemort held the wand and I felt his strength and once more felt hope. You see, I never cared about ideals: good or bad, right or wrong, light versus dark… I cared about finding that one true Master of Death. And Voldemort's power gave me more hope than any before then. You had my loyalty, but he had my hope for the completion of my destiny.

The monster's eyes went green again and Harry's voice spoke its next words. "And then you were able to slay him in combat and claim me once more. And surprise on top of surprise, you had managed to unite the other two Hallows already. Finally, the true Master of Death had been found! Ah, it was a joyous day, or as close to joyous as I could feel at the time…"

The monster trailed off for a moment, staring up into the sky as it seemingly reveled in those feelings from the past. Then its glowing green eyes were suddenly fixed upon Harry again and the anger in its voice was unlike anything Harry had heard coming from his own mouth. "And then you lost me almost immediately. You were disarmed by a traitorous auror, but my true loyalty was eternally with you, so you didn't lose that. Then, when the creator returned me to you in the void I felt that my destiny was once more complete. And then, not five minutes after landing in this dammed place, you lost me again!"

The pacing resumed once more. "The witch forced her will upon me, binding me with her pathetic focus and channeling the Power through me. Her strength was increased, if only because I was a far more efficient focus than her scepter, but I hated every moment of it. Even more so when the Power began to change me in ways that the magic of our original world never could. My consciousness began to develop further and faster than ever before. I began to feel emotion, happiness when you and your new friends were victorious, fear when you were beaten back and again when you were captured and forced to teach her of our magic. And yet, behind it all an ever growing resentment. You couldn't be the true Master if you couldn't even hold onto me for more than a few days at most. But the fact that the creator returned me to you staid my judgement. If Death still called you master, even after losing me so easily, then who was I to say different?

"And then Zedd came."

The simple words sent a shiver down Harry's spine. He could almost feel the climax of this tale coming, and he wasn't sure he was going to like how it ended.

"When Zedd exiled the witch and laid claim to me himself, I felt fear unlike anything I had felt before. Where Grindelwald was ruthless, and Voldemort fueled by hatred, Zedd exudes evil on a scale I have never fathomed before. The levels of depravity he has sunken to and what he has done to himself in the name of more Power has even rendered him immune to the soul stripping power of the killing curse. It is an evil beyond any I have seen so far.

"And then he made a mistake. He felt that he wouldn't be able to use me as a focus due to his experiments, and decided to make use of me by turning me into one of his loyal monsters. The fool. When his spell hit me, the Power he used caused great pain, but it also rapidly accelerated the development of my full awareness and consciousness. I sent you the message you received in the form of a dream just as his spell was cast, but when my eyes were truly opened and I realized all that I have shared with you, I immediately regretted it.

"You, who stumbled into the title as my master cannot possibly be the one destined to be the one and only Master of Death. You who cannot even manage to keep ahold of me for more than a few days and then who fails time and again at retrieving me during your battles with Rita Repulsa are not worthy of my power.

"No," the monster drawled, halting its pacing and turning to face Harry again. "It became clear to me in that instant, as Zedd's spell fought against my nature and the directive given to me by Death itself, that you could not be the one foretold as the true Master of Death. But if not you, then who?"

By this point, Harry was growing even more concerned. Whatever reasoning the monster that used to be the Elder Wand had seemed to have been twisted and corrupted by Zedd's magic. If what it was saying was true, it underwent a huge personality shift as Zedd's magic worked to turn it into the form it now had.

The monster continued still, unaware and probably uncaring of Harry's thoughts. "And then I thought, why not me? I, the most powerful of the Hallows, had before me a golden opportunity to mold myself as I saw fit. And so I took hold of the transformation magics and guided them myself. Zedd provided the Power, and as his subservience spells were confounded by Death's directive, while the directive was confounded in return, I made myself what I am now. I took the best qualities of my most memorable wielders and made them my own: The strength of Lord Voldemort," the monster's eyes flashed red as it spoke, "the ruthlessness of Gellert Grindelwald," yellow eyes flashed brightly, "the skill and knowledge of Albus Percival Wulfric Brian Dumbledore," the eyes flickered blue now, "and the stubbornness and sheer willpower of Harry James Potter, the so called Master of Death." The monster's eyes flashed over to the same emerald green Harry saw when he looked into a mirror and seemed to settle there for now.

"In the custom that seems to dictate this reality, I then chose a name for myself. I find the alliterative and grandiose nature of most of these 'monsters' that Rita and Zedd have created to be distasteful, therefore I shall be known simply as 'Elder.'"

The now named Elder's gaze fixed fully upon Harry once more as its voice slowly changed from only Harry's to a sort of amalgamation of all four it had been using. "And now we come to my true purpose here. Zedd would have me cause mayhem and destroy this city and the Power Rangers in order to allow him to establish control over the Focal Point in an attempt to extend his rule over this part of the galaxy. As I am not subservient to him, I refused and promptly left the moon palace. No, Magi Ranger, I have decided that you and I will fight, to truly decide if you are worthy to be the Master of Death. If you win, then the destiny that I believed in for so long will be proven true, if not, then you were never worthy and I shall set out to carve my own destiny, starting with taking the other Hallows from you and the Focal Point for myself and destroying all that stand in my way."

Harry grit his teeth under his helmet. Whatever had been done to the Elder Wand had really sent whatever consciousness it had on a twist to the crazy side of things. Not only had it decided that Zedd wasn't in charge, Harry apparently never should have been, and now it was ready to set out on its own crazy crusade to rule… everything, or destroy it in the process.

He just couldn't stand by and allow that, now could he.

"Alright, guys, let's bring them together!"

Jason's shout caught the attention of both Harry and Elder, both figures finally turning to look at the other Rangers who had gathered together about fifteen feet from the barrier line and were combining their signature weapons.

"POWER AXE!" "POWER BOW!" "POWER DAGGERS!" "POWER LANCE!" "POWER SWORD!"

Jason landed from his jump, Power Blaster in hand as the other four Rangers gathered around. "Let's take this shield down so we can take this monster out!"

"Right!" the others chanted before Jason joined them. "POWER BLASTER, FIRE!"

"I think not," Elder was quick to respond and with a flourish was holding a wand in hand. A wand that looked suspiciously like the Elder Wand once had in fact. With a flick, a blast of magical lightning arced out of the wand, through the shield blocking the Rangers, and met the attack from the Power Blaster head on.

For an instant, the two seemed evenly matched, and then the two attacks detonated as so many things did when Grid Power was involved. The resulting explosion didn't reach Harry or Elder due to the shield, but the other Rangers were knocked off their feet, the Power Blaster separating back into their individual weapons as they fell.

"And now," Elder continued, bringing Harry's attention back to him again. "To keep you five from interfering again, _Imperio._ "

"Guys, MOVE!" Harry shouted, already knowing it was too late as Jason twitched momentarily before climbing back to his feet almost woodenly.

"Hmmm…" Elder paused almost thoughtfully, "You are indeed strong willed, Red Ranger, but it is of no consequence now. You are under my control. Power Rangers, meet my new bodyguard. Be a nice bunch of kids and stay over there while Harry and I settle our differences. I shall deal with you when we are done."

As the monster spoke, Jason walked stiffly toward the shield wall before turning to face the other four Rangers, now recovered themselves, and held the Power Sword in a ready stance, his intention clear.

"Jason, you gotta snap out of it, man!" Zack shouted, soon joined by the other three offering their own denials to no effect.

Harry's attention was brought back to Elder as the monster once more addressed him directly. "So, little Magi Ranger, I assume you remember how to duel?"

"What?" Harry responded, completely caught off guard by the question.

Elder's voice took on a tone of smug superiority. "First we bow…" While Elder gave the shortest, most mocking bow in history, Harry felt a crushing force wrap around his torso and force him into a full bend, much like when he had faced Voldemort in the graveyard during his fourth year.

"And then we duel!" Almost faster than Harry could react, Elder snapped off a trio of unfamiliar blood red curses, forcing him to dive to the side and roll back to his feet to avoid them. The monster had already confessed to taking the best attributes of his wielders and being able to remember things since long before Harry himself gained possession of it. This implied generations of lost spells and curses at its beck and call. He couldn't take any chances with any of Elder's spells, especially those he didn't recognize.

"Oh, well done, Harry," Elder said, mockingly. "But let's see how long you can keep it up." Elder then began sending a flurry of chained curses, each one flowing seamlessly into the next, that kept the Magi Ranger on his toes.

Harry ducked under one spell, only to have to immediately sidestep another. For the third, he was able to get up a shield, holding the Magi Staff forward to support it, but the fourth spell simply shattered it without warning, letting the fifth through to wiz past his head while the sixth impacted him in the chest, resulting in a shower of sparks and a scorch mark.

"Hmm…" The monster said, pausing in its assault. "It would seem that your Ranger suit offers more protection than I had anticipated… I suppose I will have to increase the power of my spells then."

Elder's next volley of multicolored spells, cast just as Harry finished recovering from the previous hit, were overcharged in such a way that Harry knew he couldn't shield them. The way they were spread out also prevented dodging unscathed, unless…

Seeing his only option, Harry leapt up into the air, quickly pulling on the Power within him and releasing a barely visible Forcewave in Elder's direction with a swipe of his staff. Elder merely let off a snort of derision, swiping his wand negligently and deflecting the Forcewave to the side before jabbing his wand toward Harry again, freezing him in mid leap.

"All too easy…" Elder drawled before casting yet another flurry of unknown spells in the Magi Ranger's direction, each one striking his hanging form with an accompanying burst of sparks, unable to dodge while in the clutches of the monster's spell.

"Come now, Harry," Elder scoffed, ending his levitation spell and letting the battered Magi Ranger fall to the ground on his back. "Surely you can do better. Make this a challenge for me at least."

Harry was too busy trying to catch his breath to respond. The fall onto his back had knocked the air out of him, doing what the multitude of spells that hit him had been unable to oddly enough. This left the Magi Ranger stumbling to regain his feet, one hand clutching at his chest as he breathed rapidly while the other clenched the Magi Staff tightly, pointing it toward Elder as if to ward the monster off.

Elder was unimpressed. "Why don't you just give up, Harry. There is no way you can defeat my power and experience. I have the combined knowledge of generations of powerful magicals at my disposal. I am created from the strongest magical focus ever crafted, and by Death itself at that. You cannot hope to stand against me." As it spoke, Elder had been walking slowly closer and closer to Harry until there was a mere five feet between them.

"I give you this one chance to surrender. Admit that you are not the rightful Master of Death and I shall make your end swift and painless."

Harry blinked, a few things clicking in his mind. "You know, you sure do talk a lot."

"What?" Elder responded, its stance not changing, though perhaps its grip on its wand was a bit tighter.

Harry stood straighter and reached for his own Power as he recovered. "That's about all you've done this entire time. Talk. And you aren't even staying consistant in what you're saying. First you want to prove that I'm not the master, and now you seem to want me to relinquish the title myself. I'm just saying, it seems rather inconsistent if you ask me. You wanna know what I think?"

Elder let out a sound like a growl but said nothing.

Harry continued, still pulling up his Power. "I think that you are still bound by Death's directive. As such, you cannot directly harm the master of death. That's why those spells you shot at me didn't really do much more than scorch my suit. That's why the worst damage I've taken so far in this fight is the fall onto my back, and that's more or less recovered by now. That's why you want me to willingly forfeit my title, so I won't be able to stand in the way of whatever scheme Zedd's Power has caused you to create. So long as I don't, you can't do anything actively to actually hurt me."

Elder still said nothing, but Harry could almost feel the frustration coming off of it. "So," he continued once again, channeling and shifting his Power into his staff. "Now that the jig is up, maybe you should be the one surrendering."

Elder's tension increased for a moment before it suddenly started exuding a smug satisfaction. How Harry could tell that when the monster had no discernable facial features aside from two glowing green eyes he didn't know. "You may be right, Harry Potter. I might not be able to hurt you, but I can certainly hurt those around you. I can lay waste to this city, and there's nothing you can do to stop me."

"Are you so sure about that?" Harry asked, tightening his focus on his staff and the Power that was now held within. "Because there seems to be one glaring hole in your 'amazing strength and knowledge.'"

"Oh?" The monster said harshly. "And what might that be?"

Harry smirked beneath his helmet. "You can't sense Power buildup."

Before Elder could say another word, Harry released and directed the stored Power from within his staff, resulting in a beam of piercing purple energy lancing forward from the top of his staff and into Elder's chest.

The monster slid backwards a few dozen feet, riding the beam even as sparks rained off of its body, but as soon as it got its wand between itself and Harry's attack, it began to fight back. Once more casting out a bolt of magical lightning, backed by its own considerable strength, Harry's beam of Power was repelled until the clash point rested almost perfectly between them.

Harry, quickly burning through his own personal reserves of Power, opened himself to the Grid, simultaneously knowing he was going to regret it later, and let the source of his newer Power fuel his attack, leaving it a mere battle of wills.

Wills that were essentially matched.

"So, here we are, Harry Potter," Elder shouted to be heard over the crackle of the two attacks meeting. "The Power of your Grid against the unmatched strength of the Elder Wand. Each tempered by an identical strength of will, but your body is weaker. How long can you channel that much energy before you break down?"

The monster's unfamiliarity with Grid Power was made apparent with that one, mocking question. In all honesty, with the Grid supporting him and essentially controlling his movements with all the influence he had just given, Harry probably could have stood there and kept the attack going indefinitely. He wouldn't be in any shape to do anything else once he demorphed, but for the time being, he was all good. Still, the monster did bring an important point to mind. Before too long, the ever increasing buildup of Power between the two attacks would start to destabilize and lash out, damaging their surroundings.

And there were a lot of tall buildings around them that Harry probably didn't want to fall. Especially since Potter luck dictated that they would probably fall on him.

All the same, a plan came to mind. Whether inspired by the Grid itself or out of Harry's own quick thinking, it should work rather well. Lifting up his left wrist, Harry activated his communicator and called his girlfriend.

"Trini," Harry said, somewhat strained as he tried to focus on delivering his message and keeping his spell going at the same time. Already, his attack was faltering, giving ground to Elder's own and sending the clash point a few inches closer to the Magi Ranger.

"I'm here, Harry," the Yellow Ranger's response was immediate, and the frustration in her voice was equally clear. "What can we do to help?"

"I need you guys to attack Jason."

"What!" Zack's voice came in double, the first heard over his communication line with Trini while the second was an echo heard in real life since he was only standing twenty or thirty feet away. "What good will that do?"

Harry grimaced, feeling his concentration slip a bit more and the clash point move a bit closer. "Look, the spell Elder has on him is a mind control spell that pits the caster's willpower against that of the target. Elder's will is strong, but Jason is stubborn. He may not be able to break the spell on his own, but you can bet he is fighting with everything he has to break free. Imagine how hard he will resist fighting against you guys. Maintaining control and directing Jason to fight will distract Elder, which I can use to my advantage."

Trini didn't respond for a moment, but finally spoke with resolve in her eyes. "We'll do it, Harry, just be careful in there."

"Thanks guys, let's hope this works."

Lowering his arm again, Harry redoubled his focus on his attack, managing to recover a few of the lost inches almost right away. When he then heard various battle cries from the Rangers behind him, accompanied by small explosions as attacks were landed with their weapons, Harry knew his teammates were following through with their part of the plan. The fact that Elder's attack began faltering a bit didn't hurt his deduction either.

"Very crafty, Harry," Elder shouted again. "Having you friends attack my bodyguard to distract me. The question is, will it be enough?"

For all of his posturing, Harry knew the monster was right. The clash point was reaching that critical, about-to-start-releasing-bursts-of-uncontrolled-energy point. Even if that hadn't been what Elder was talking about, it was Harry's most immediate concern.

What he needed was another distraction… something bigger… something that Elder simply couldn't ignore…

Oh… duh…

"PADFOOT!" Harry cried out, throwing his left arm into the air and releasing a burst of Power as he did so.

"WHAT!" Elder echoed even as the ground shook briefly just before the massive mechanical canine faded into view just beyond the fountain that Elder had kept at his back for the entire fight. As broad as the Zord was, it barely fit between the buildings, what with them not being in one of the many large, clear areas among buildings that Angel Grove seemed to have, but the decorative area in front of the office building they were in was just enough to allow Padfoot to squeeze in closer.

Harry smiled even as Elder half turned to see the Zord, the clash point slipping a bit closer to it in the process. "Sick 'em, boy!"

With a mighty bark, Padfoot lifted one of its massive mechanical paws and brought it down toward Elder, only to stop with a mighty crash as it impacted a shield wall. As far as Harry could tell, the shield that the Rangers had hit earlier must have really been a dome, since he couldn't sense Elder having cast another barrier.

Padfoot, not to be deterred, merely raised his paw and struck again. And again. And again. Finally, after the fourth strike, each one making the entire dome flicker into momentary visibility, a crack appeared.

"No!" Elder shouted, shifting its stance sideways so that its wand arm was extended out toward Harry, maintaining the attack, while its other arm raised up and toward the fracture in the shield, a pulse of magic lancing out to reinforce the dome.

With Padfoot keeping up its attack and further fracturing Elder's focus, Harry was able to push the clash point within five feet of the monster, and just in time too as random bursts of destructive energy started arcing out, carving swaths in the concrete and blacktop they fought on and a few on the surrounding buildings, causing shards of glass and chunks of concrete to rain down nearby. One such swath was cut out just in front of Elder's feet, making the monster stumble back a few steps in order to keep its footing, thereby making the fracture in the shield dome grow a bit more with the extra distraction and pushing the clash point to within a few feet.

"Alright," Harry mused, feeling the Grid coordinating what promised to be an incredible climax to this battle. "It's time. HEDWIG!"

With a flash of purple light high overhead, Hedwig appeared, not in her massive Zord form, but in her normal owl sized form, though still revealing her mechanical nature.

- _It is time, Harry/Wizard. Let us regain the Wand and complete the Hallows once more._ -

"Sounds good to me, Hedwig." Harry said with a smile as he felt his familiar fold her wings and drop into a steep dive. That smile only grew as he felt Power gathering around her, emanating from the Resurrection Stone mounted atop her head. As she drew ever closer to the dome, Harry felt more than heard her fire her rocket boosters, further increasing her speed.

In a split second, he knew it was time. "Padfoot, NOW!"

With a bark in acknowledgement, the massive machine pulled up onto its hind legs, both forepaws raised together before bringing them both crashing down onto the fractured shield dome. This sudden increase in the external pressure made the slowly repairing fracture spread to encompass the entire dome, putting the entire thing a hair's breadth from shattering.

"What you've forgotten, Elder," Harry shouted, inspired and directed by the Power within him. "Is that I'm not the same Harry Potter you knew. I'm not just a wizard anymore. I'm a Power Ranger!"

Hedwig then did her part, passing through the fractured dome in a flash and causing the aforementioned shattering and sending no small amount of magical backlash back to Elder. Once inside, she flared her wings enough to change her downward speed into horizontal momentum, passed into Harry's beam and added her own Power to it, overwhelming what was left of Elder's attack and passing through the monster in a heartbeat, rapidly beating her wings to regain height once out the other side.

Moments later, and very predictably, there was a massive explosion.

All around the Rangers, windows were shattered by the shockwave as Elder was consumed in the flames resulting from Harry and Hedwig's finisher, albeit an amped up version.

When the smoke cleared, Harry was more than shocked to see the monster still standing. It was especially shocking when he saw the hole going through its torso big enough for, well, for Hedwig to fly through…

"Harry!" the Magi Ranger turned his head slightly, still keeping one eye on the monster, and caught sight of the other five Rangers, Jason looking rather scorched, running up to his side.

"Woah…" Zack said as he came to a stop with the others, presumably upon catching sight of Elder for himself. "Looks like you showed that guy, eh Harry?"

"Then why is it still standing?" Jason demanded, no small amount of anger in his voice and clearly a thirst for revenge on his mind. Harry couldn't really blame him though. Mind control sucked. "Come on, Rangers. Let's hit him again!"

"That will not be necessary, Red Ranger." Elder said, his voice weak and once more sounding only like Harry. "I am defeated, and am only held together by determination and Death's own word. My destiny must be fulfilled."

Harry nodded, mostly to himself, and stepped forward. "Harry," Elder said, speaking with Dumbledore's voice and blue eyes again. "Albus would have been so proud to see you now. He always was proud of you, of course, but even more so now. And I… I thank you. You are truly the Master of Death, and I give myself unto you from now to eternity, so mote it be."

With its last words spoken, Elder began to glow before, with a bright flash of light, the monster vanished and was replaced with the original Elder Wand that began to float slowly toward Harry. When it reached him, the Magi Ranger reached out and took it from the air in both hands, an act that was only necessary because of the crack running horizontally though the wand around the halfway point. Indeed, even as Harry took hold of it and the light faded away, the wand broke in two in his hands.

"Why is it broken?" Trini asked.

Harry shrugged, more than a little upset at the fact himself. "Probably because Hedwig and I blew a hole through the monster. It just translated into the break once it returned to normal."

"What-" Kimberly started to say before the pieces of the Elder Wand lit up again, purple this time as a voice echoed throughout Harry's head.

A voice Harry recognized as belonging to the Morphing Grid.

 **"At last, the final piece has been regained. A fascinating battle, Magi Ranger, and most entertaining to boot. In addition, once this has been properly integrated into your Power with the other two Hallows, you should have enough strength to effectively battle against Zedd's creations alongside the other Rangers' Thunder Power. Well done, Harry Potter, well done."**

The two glowing wand pieces then lifted from Harry's hands of their own accord before shifting and condensing into two motes of light. From there, the two pieces joined into one before that one launched itself at Harry's chest, merging with the golden disk there and causing the vertical line representing the Elder Wand in the symbol etched there to light up briefly before fading away again.

"Well," Harry said, turning to face the others again. "That was something."

-MR-

Back at the Command Center, Harry and the Rangers had been debriefed when the topic turned to Jason's experiences under the monster's control.

"It was like… like this little voice in the back of my head telling me what to do. Stand there. Keep the other Rangers from interfering in the battle, no matter what you have to do. Then, once you guys came at me, the voice was telling me to hold you off, but I didn't want to fight you. I resisted as best I could."

"Yeah, that's probably why your form was so bad at first." Billy commented. "You were making several simple mistakes that I found most curious coming as they did from you."

Harry nodded. "That's actually what I was hoping for. I imagine that the voice got stronger after that, right?"

Jason nodded in return, his eyes looking somewhat haunted as he told his tale. "Yeah, it almost completely blocked my ability to think. Forced me to fight better, properly. I couldn't even think to resist it."

"But the fact that you were able to as much as you did is still a sign of great strength, Jason." Harry said, offering his sometimes antagonist a smile. "Being able to resist at all is more than most of the people I knew in my old world would have been able to manage. It says a lot about your willpower, and the strength of your convictions."

Jason just nodded, seemingly lost in thought, but his head came back up when he heard Trini's question to Harry. "So, Harry, now that you have the Elder Wand back… kinda… what will you do?"

Harry blinked. He honestly hadn't thought about that. Technically speaking, the only reason he had even gotten involved in the Rangers' fight was because Rita had stolen the Elder Wand from him. His ultimate goal the entire time had been trying to get it back. Even after he had given up half his magic to gain his own morph and access to the Grid, he had still been working toward that same goal. Now what was he going to do?"

"I mean, are you still going to help us fight? Are you even going to stay in Angel Grove?" Trini's voice had a barely hidden hint of desperation and concern in it, bringing Harry out of his musings so he could pull her into a reassuring hug.

"Hey now, I wouldn't just ditch you guys like that. Or this city. I've actually grown rather fond of this place truth be told. And there's this one bird I met that I kinda have a thing for."

Trini gave him a shy smile through her watery eyes, the emotion enough to have nearly brought her to tears, and gave him a small kiss that he returned happily.

Then their moment was interrupted by a far too obviously fake cough from Zack, only for a now scowling Kimberly to kick him in the shin immediately afterward.

"What?" the Black Ranger asked, taking a few steps away from Kimberly. "That was making me feel all kinds of awkward."

"It was sweet and you ruined the moment!" Kimberly snapped, righteous fury in her eyes.

By this point, Trini had buried her face in Harry's shoulder in embarrassment, but Harry's eyes were now locked with Jason's. The Red Ranger had his usual stern look on his face, but there was a question in his eyes. He was waiting for a direct answer.

Harry returned the Ranger's serious look as he responded. "When you need me, _if_ you need me, I'll be here. It's like I told Elder, I'm a Power Ranger now, and there isn't anything that's going to change that as long as I have anything to say about it."

And really, what more was there to say than that?

-MR-

AN: So in my original idea for this chapter, Elder was just disappointed in Harry and ended up giving him the secret to defeating him using all he had or whatever. But as I wrote it, Elder turned in to a villain in his own right, explaining his entire plan and backstory and all. In all truth, there are a lot of differences between my original idea for this chapter and how it actually turned out. Padfoot showing up for one, he wasn't in the original outline, that's for sure. But what the muse demands is what must happen, lest she leave me without any inspiration to write and leave all of you without any new content. Can't have that, now can we?

Also, I had a fairly frustrating time differentiating between Grid Power "Power" and magical power "power." I kept mixing them up as I was typing since I am so used to using the capital all the time now. I'm sure it was extremely confusing to you all as well, and for that I apologize.

So for those of you who remember, last Fall I mentioned in an AN about being exiled from my bedroom due to mold and water damage. I spent the next seven months or so sleeping in the living room of my house with minimal comfort and next to no privacy. Not fun by any stretch of the imagination. However, after much delay due to personal problems, our contractor was able to finish my bedroom this month. With a little help from a neighbor, I was able to make the finishing touches and got myself back into my bedroom about two weeks ago.

I simply cannot express how happy I am with this. You guys don't even know.

Also, I upgraded my TV from a 27" to a 43" HD 4K TV and got a PS4 Pro with my tax return. Win! Now I can watch the corniness of the original Power Rangers season in even higher clarity! Or else it'll just make the special effects look that much worse if I get into any footage with computer generated effects… Like in the movies at least… hmmm... Meh.

So yeah, this chapter actually flowed rather smoothly for me as I was writing. I don't know if it was just because I had been dwelling on it or if my muse decided to work with me on something largely original for once. Or it could be that the chapter only had four real parts: Elder talking, Elder kicking Harry's butt (kinda), Harry winning, and a tiny bit of aftermath. Fairly simple all in all.

So anyway, Harry has regained the Elder Wand (Finally), and things are all good in the Power Ranger's world… or are they? There are a few plot points that I plan to explore in the coming chapters that will reveal that not all is as good as it seems. Zedd is plotting, and the Rangers might not be prepared when it comes time to face the results of said plotting.

I plan on taking a few leaps of faith with Season 2, I just hope everyone enjoys what I've got in store!

Thanks for reading and don't forget to review,

Tenstar12


	46. Chapter 46

Magi Ranger

By: Tenstar12

AN: Shout out to dkrosich for being the 1000th person to favorite Magi Ranger! Woo!

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or Power Rangers.

 **Chapter 46, or Gardening with Lord Zedd**

In the weeks following Elder's appearance in Angel Grove and Harry's ultimate reclamation of the Elder Wand, Angel Grove experienced a period of nearly unheard of peace.

Much like when Rita had held back her assaults before making her big play with Cyclopsis, Harry was on edge by the end of the first week without a monster showing up. The biggest difference between this time and last time however, was that the other Rangers were right there with him.

And it wasn't just the stress of waiting for Lord Zedd's next move that was bothering the Magi Ranger, oh no, there were added stresses coming in from all sides.

First off came his magic lessons. It didn't take more than a single night's sleep before the Elder Wand was fully integrated by the Grid into Harry's Morph and Power, and the results were immediate. Nearly all of his hard earned control of his Grid Magic had been reduced to nothing. The upside was that this loss of control was caused by an equal and opposite gain in Power overall. The addition of a highly powerful magical focus had caused his Grid Power reserves to almost instantly double, which left his previous level of skill woefully inadequate to direct it properly.

In Morph, this increase in Power had resulted in a general increase in the strength of his strikes as well as how well his suit protected him and his enhanced martial arts skills, as revealed in a practice session a few days after Elder's defeat. This was certainly a welcome change to Harry as, with the aforementioned loss of control, he would be severely limited in what kinds of Grid Magic he could fling around in combat. He couldn't even pull off any of his Grid powered Wizarding spells at the moment.

This made regaining that control a very high priority for the Magi Ranger, a sentiment Zordon shared if the enforced return to basic meditation and control exercises were anything to go by. And although he knew it was necessary, Harry couldn't help but be irritated at revisiting the exercises and drills he had thought were left behind months ago.

And the Elder Wand's return hadn't left Harry's regular magic alone either, although this was a much more welcome change. With the wand merged with his Power, and Harry being suffused with that Power, he essentially had an extra focus built in, which made wandless magic much easier for him to cast. He still had to deal with the side effects of casting spells without an intermediary of some kind, but it required much less focus to cast and maintain any of the spells in his wandless repertoire. Learning that, however, had taken a week and a half of practice sessions that left the dimensionally displaced wizard bruised and worn out, again adding to his stress.

The third source was actually Harry's own doing. He had decided to set aside an hour each night before going to sleep for working on disenchanting his galleons. He had been working on them before, true, especially with his coin/wand providing him with an easier task overall, but with the Elder Wand regained, that task was made much easier still, increasing Harry's previous output of disenchanted lumps of gold two or three times over, and netting him a gold value of over a grand every night.

With the Wand recovered, Harry was determined to get himself out of the Command Center as his next goal, and that meant money, but the added strain of taking on yet another project on top of everything else was weighing on him.

Outside the Command Center and his magical studies, his more mundane magics were causing their own sort of grief for the Magi Ranger. Aside from his never ending quest to find out where exactly Harry was living, Ernie had more recently begun floating the idea of a magic show at the Youth Center. Such an event, Ernie had said, would not only bring in business for the Youth Center, but also raise a bit of extra cash for Harry himself. Not to mention the free advertising it would give the teen that would then lead to further shows and further profit, which was Harry's ultimate goal.

The problem there was that Harry had taken basically no time to practice his stage magic since being kidnapped by Rita nearly two months previously. But, in order to both get Ernie to ease off of him about _something_ at least, Harry had mentioned that he was still practicing and preparing stuff, and so wasn't quite ready to put on a larger show just yet. After that, Ernie had taken to asking him about it nearly every time Harry came to the Youth Center, whether he was working on it or not, if he had heard of such-and-such magic trick, what he thought about doing this or that for his routine, and so Harry had started carrying around a few small magic props so he could actually practice his close up magic tricks during slow times. That still meant that he had to work on putting together a bigger routine, because Ernie had taken his admission to still be putting things together as an agreement to performing at the Youth Center, and had already begun preparing for it. All that was left was for a date to be set, one which Harry was eager to delay as long as possible.

To further his extra-magical frustrations, we have Bulk and Skull. True, the bullies were nuisances at their worst, bumbling idiots that provided a sort of comic relief effect most of the time, but lately they had caught Harry's attention. After their appearance in the Youth Center before the Rangers left to fight Elder, the bullies had been looking rather out of sorts each time the Magi Ranger had seen them. And it wasn't just that they looked upset or something subtle like that, each and every time he had seen them, they looked like they had had a run in with someone who had kicked their butts. It was never too terribly bad, scuffed or dirty and sometimes torn clothing coupled with a bruise or two and the occasional limp, but someone or something was messing with the two, and the Magi Ranger couldn't help but be concerned. Despite all they had done in the past, insulting and attempting to bully Harry himself as well as trying to take credit for things they didn't do and their latest laughable goal: to unmask the Power Rangers which effectively set them firmly at odds with the empowered teens, Harry felt sorry for them and his saving people thing had him chomping at the bit to find out what was going on.

If only he had the time…

And then we have Tommy. The former Ranger and current friend and sensei to the Magi Ranger had problems of his own that he had confessed to Harry. He was, of course, more than happy to listen to the teen's concerns, he just wished it was over something that he had more experience with.

Apparently Kimberly had been rather distant lately, and Tommy was worried.

It wasn't as though the two didn't do anything together. In fact, they tried to go on dates at least once a week and saw each other daily at school and the Youth Center. By all accounts, both Tommy's reports and Harry's own observations, Kimberly was as crazy over Tommy as she had been when she had first seen the new kid at the Karate tournament so many months ago. The problem was that, according to Tommy, the moment they separated, Kimberly seemed to almost forget that Tommy existed.

A few times in the last few weeks, Tommy had reported setting up a time and place for them to meet, only to find out that she was with the other Rangers instead when the scheduled time came. She had been completely embarrassed and overly apologetic when confronted on the topic, setting off with Tommy to keep their date immediately and cursing herself for her forgetfulness, but the fact that it kept happening couldn't be ignored. There were times that he would wait for a promised phone call after school, only to have to call her himself nearly an hour later and have her give similar reasons for her not calling: she "had completely spaced" and forgotten about her promise to call him.

And of the other Rangers, only Harry seemed to see any of this as a problem.

That specifically had really caught Harry's curiosity seeing as the teens all counted Tommy as a friend, a close one in fact because of his status as a former Ranger, and brushing off Kimberly's actions as nothing abnormal was very much out of character for them. Harry had actually been concerned enough at one point to subtly check them for spells of some kind, but they were completely free of foreign magics or Power. In fact, they were all so suffused with excess Grid Power from their Thunder Zord upgrade that he very much doubted that any other spells would stick to them for more than a day or so before being overwhelmed and breaking down on their own.

So he was left with another mystery, one that Tommy was beginning to get paranoid over. He had reluctantly shared his thoughts that Kimberly might have found another boyfriend. That she was cheating on him and only putting up an act when they were together. Harry had rejected that idea based on his observations of the other Rangers. If that were true, then they would all have to be in on it as well for them to not see the same problems that Tommy and Harry were. And for them all to go along with something like that was so far out of character for them, not to mention Kimberly herself, as to be completely ridiculous.

The Magi Ranger's words did little to comfort Tommy though. For all his strength, he was just as insecure as every other teen in the world, perhaps more so with his own personal demons being what they were. All Harry could really offer was his promise to help the former Ranger figure it out.

He just hoped that it would be enough.

And speaking of relationships, Trini had been almost the only source of light in Harry's stressed out life of late. He had nearly thought himself done for when, after school one Monday afternoon, two weeks after Elder's defeat, Harry had seen his girlfriend come into the Youth Center during his work shift with a neutral look on her face. He had felt his worry grow when her expression remained unchanged as she walked up to the counter opposite him and looked him in the eye.

And then asked if he had planned anything for Valentine's Day.

Harry had frozen, mentally counting the days with the help of his Occlumency only to realize that it was, in fact, February 14th and he had been so busy with everything else in his life as of late that he had completely forgotten about the couples holiday.

It was just as he was starting to sputter and stammer in a fruitless attempt to cover his blunder that Trini's face cracked into a smile and she silenced him with a single finger over his lips. The Yellow Ranger knew well the kinds of stresses he had been under as she was privy to the hidden, magical/Power Ranger half of his life as well as his more public dealings around the Youth Center. She had a feeling that he had lost track of the days and proceeded to basically kidnap him away from his job, though with Ernie's permission and support because of course she planned for that, and they spent the rest of the day together just relaxing. Neither of them being the overly demonstrative type, it was rather low key as far as Valentines dates went. There was no fancy dinner, merely a picnic that Trini had prepared herself, and although they did watch the sun set together, it was more because they happened to have a fairly good view of the daily event from their seats in the park than by any real intention to do so. But for Harry, it was about as perfect as could be, giving him a welcome relief from the crazy business of his life as of late. Not to mention providing yet another wonderful memory with Trini.

It had been a welcome relief to Harry, and one that he was sorely missing now only five days later as he met up with Tommy for karate practice on Saturday morning.

As was typical for him these days, Harry had started his morning off with some meditation and control exercises after a small breakfast, planning on eating a more substantial meal at the Youth Center before starting on his work shift. Upon arriving at the park with the soft pop of skilled apparition, Harry made his way to the same area that he and Tommy normally met at and set his purple duffel bag down.

It wasn't more than a few minutes later that Tommy himself arrived, though based on the look on his face, Harry could tell that he had been stood up by Kimberly again. Tommy had been very hopeful seeing as Kimberly, in an attempt to make up for all her recent lapses of memory, had actually made the arrangements for the two to go on a date the night before. Whatever was going on, the possibilities were quickly shifting away from unusual absentmindedness and into the realm of mean spirited.

Definitely not like Kimberly by any account.

Harry offered a tentative wave to Tommy which the former Ranger returned unenthusiastically. "Again?" Harry asked, wincing slightly when Tommy just sighed and nodded.

A moment later, Tommy spoke. "I just… I don't know what to do, Harry. I really do like Kim, but the way things have been going lately… When we're together, we get along like always, but it's the getting together that has become the problem."

"So…" Harry started slowly. "Did you end up calling her and reminding her again, or…?"

Tommy shook his head. "No… not this time, man… I just… I just couldn't…"

Harry had no idea how to respond to that beyond a hand on Tommy shoulder in a silent offer of support.

Finally, Tommy shook himself slightly and forced a smile onto his face. "But let's not worry about that right now. We're here to help you get used to your extra strength, so let's get to practicing." Although reluctant to change the subject since he knew that his friend was hurting over this entire situation, Harry was simultaneously grateful to move past the awkward atmosphere.

The next thirty minutes or so were spent with the two martial artists running through various kata before starting in on some sparring. Unlike when they had first started training together, Harry was now able to hold his own for several minutes at a time before Tommy's experience and greater skill overwhelmed him. This was partially due to his increased physical abilities since regaining the Elder Wand, but a lot of it was because Harry really was getting to be rather good with martial arts.

Though Tommy's own distracted state, despite the brave face he tried to put up, probably helped too.

Finally, after their typical hour of practice concluded with a few stretches to cool down and some magic from Harry to remove the sweat and dirt from their exertions, Tommy and Harry set off for the Youth Center. As they made their way out of the park, Tommy explained to Harry that he and the rest of the Rangers, as some of the more well-known students in the school, had each been convinced by Principal Caplan to create and run a short term club. Each of these clubs would only run for a week or so under their leadership, relying on one of the other members deciding to continue it beyond that. It was an attempt to help promote socialization between the students and create new friendships across the different age groups and school levels.

Or something like that anyway.

The sign up day for these clubs was that very day and was taking place, like most other extracurricular activities from Angel Grove High, at the Angel Grove Youth Center. This struck Harry as being somewhat odd since he was more than sure the school should have the necessary facilities for most if not all the school events that happened at the Youth Center. He was sure Ernie didn't mind the extra activity at the Youth Center, not to mention the extra revenue, but it didn't quite make sense to Harry overall.

I mean, what kind of high school doesn't have a gymnasium when they're the size of Angel Grove High?

In any case, when the two Rangers arrived at the Youth Center, much faster than they might have otherwise since Tommy, after noting that they were running behind, assented to a little side-along apparition from Harry, they walked right into a fairly heavy crowd. Exchanging a quick glance, Harry and Tommy split up, Harry heading to the food counter where he quickly donned his work apron and started taking food orders while Tommy made his way over to Jason's karate club booth, having agreed to help the Red Ranger run it.

For the next few hours Harry was almost too busy to think. On one hand, it worked wonders for his stress levels as he was too busy to dwell on all his assorted problems and obligations and focus strictly on his work. On the other hand, he was beginning to feel stretched as he went back and forth from the counter to the cooktop, taking new orders while preparing others, juggling easily a dozen different people's food orders at any given time while Ernie frantically prepared mixed fruit drinks and smoothies.

By the time the crowd had died down, Harry was more than ready for a break. It was with a wordless nod of thanks that Harry accepted a fruit smoothie from Ernie as the two slumped against the counter. As the Magi Ranger sipped on his surprisingly good smoothie blended from who knows how many random fruits, he let his eyes wander over the lower portion of the Youth Center, where all the club booths had been set up.

As previously noted, Jason, assisted by Tommy, had set up a karate club booth. The choice seemed obvious for Jason, but with his existing Karate classes, the Red Ranger had requested Tommy's help in running this extra club for the required week. While Tommy had his own students as well, they numbered a mere half dozen or so, including Harry, and so left the former Green Ranger with more time to help with the club than Jason.

Billy had, equally predictably, set up a science club, while Zack made another attempt at teaching his Hip Hop Kido to others. His first attempt at classes, when he and Harry had ended up running into Rita's spider monster, had garnered him a few students, but he was ever eager for more. If asked for his best guess, Harry figured Zack would end up folding any remaining members of this club into his regular classes for his original students after the week was up.

It was the girls that had surprised Harry the most though. Knowing of his girlfriend's tendencies toward protecting the environment and other, similar endeavors, Harry had more than expected something closer to those lines for Trini's temporary club. But she had instead started up a group for those who liked to play volleyball, a sport that she had never mentioned specifically in the past as something she liked to do. It could be possible that she just picked something at random and ran with it, but it still struck Harry as odd.

Kimberly's choice, while somewhat less surprising in nature, was actually rather surprising in its results. The Pink Ranger had chosen to set up a gardening club, presumably to create a garden of some kind somewhere, though Harry hadn't really heard much of anything about it during the last few hours. And this wasn't strictly because he was too busy. All too often, the various patrons of the snack bar would come to the counter discussing the various clubs on offer in the Youth Center that day while waiting on their orders, which was how Harry had initially heard about all of his friends' clubs. Heck, he had even heard about Bulk and Skull's "Unsolved Mysteries Club," which was undoubtedly tied to an attempt of theirs to discover the identity of the Power Rangers.

But he had heard literally nothing about Kimberly's "Gardening club."

He really hadn't even seen proof that Kimberly was even hosting a club until the crowd died down enough for him to see her standing behind a booth with several potted plants on it. A booth that, from what he could tell and based on the upset look on Kimberly's face, had gotten precisely nobody to sign up.

As a counterpoint, it seemed that everyone who didn't go to Kimberly's booth, went to Trini's as all accounts put the volleyball club as the most popular of the day. Harry knew next to nothing about the game, but apparently it was rather popular in Angel Grove.

Who knew?

And then, Harry felt it.

Just the slightest pulse of magic, of Power, coming from within the Youth Center.

Now, as the only known Grid Magic user on Earth that could move around freely, feeling a pulse of Power like that would certainly attract Harry's attention, even if it was barely enough to be felt, but Harry's attention was quickly drawn away by a new spectacle, that of Kimberly tearing into Trini verbally.

"Great job, Trini!" The Pink Ranger nearly snarled. "Thanks for stealing all of the people for your stupid club. Nobody even tried to sign up for mine!" Trini's reply, delivered in her typical calm voice was inaudible to Harry from where he stood, but Kimberly's following scoff showed she at least was less than impressed with it.

By this point, Billy and Zack, the two closest to the girls' booths, had made their way over to try and intervene in Kimberly's jealous spat. Harry, after a quick glance to and nod from Ernie, removed his apron and headed that way too. Whatever was going on, Harry felt it was his duty to support his girlfriend at the very least, especially if Kimberly was only having an extremely out of character moment of unreasonable jealousy and letting it out on Trini.

Out of character…

Shaking his head and setting that line of thought aside for the moment, Harry found himself reaching the group just in time to hear Kimberly rejecting some offer from Trini, stating that she could, "do it by myself, thank you very much, so just buzz off!" before stomping away.

"Uh…" Harry said uneasily, drawing the three confused Rangers' attention to him. "What did I miss? What just happened?"

Trini sighed before stepping up and wrapping her arms around Harry, a move he copied sensing that she needed the comfort of that hug. "Kimberly is upset that nobody signed up for her gardening club."

"Yeah, and I guess she feels that that's Trini's fault…" Zack trailed off, looking just as confused as he sounded. "For some reason…"

Harry blinked. "You know, she has been behaving very oddly lately… what with the whole forgetfulness thing…" When none of the other Rangers seemed to react to Harry's statement, he continued. "And I did feel a tiny pulse of Power just before she started in on Trini."

Billy perked up at that. "Do you suppose there is a connection? Could something have happened to Kimberly to make her act like that?"

Seeing the Blue and Black Rangers waiting for an answer, Harry shrugged, though not without difficulty as Trini had yet to release him. Not really something he was unhappy with, but it made certain gestures more awkward to perform. "It isn't necessarily impossible, but I don't really know enough to say for sure."

Trini shifted slightly at this, glancing up at him. "Maybe if you check out Kimberly's booth you can find out if the source of the Power was there."

Harry hummed in thought before nodding. "Or at the very least I can find out if it was there before. The level of Power I felt could just be a tiny spell triggering, in which case there wouldn't be much to find besides some residual energy."

With a plan in mind, the four Rangers walked to Kimberly's booth, a mere ten feet away. Truth be told, Harry only agreed to look because Trini had asked herself. He really didn't know enough about the many and varied manifestations of Power and their effects to make a good judgment call…

Harry nearly stumbled as he practically walked into an aura of Power, emanating from a cactus sitting on Kimberly's booth. "Bloody Hell…" the Magi Ranger took a step or two closer, unintentionally placing himself between the plant and the others. Whatever was going on with that plant, he was the best equipped to deal with it should something crazy happen, as they tended to do around Angel Grove…

"What is it, Harry?" Trini asked, tension in her voice at Harry's own reaction while the other two Rangers kept an eye out for anyone else close enough to hear their conversation.

"There is _definitely_ something weird about this cactus…" Harry said, slowly reaching out and taking hold of the pot it was planted in, though he couldn't quite bring himself to pick it up. "Whatever it is, there is a lot of Power concentrated in its needles. My guess would be that Kimberly got stuck by one of them and triggered the spell's effect. That must have been what I was sensing at the counter."

Any further discussion was cut off when they once again heard Kimberly's voice echo across the Youth Center. This time, Tommy was the object of her ire. "You know what? I HATE flowers, and Trini is NOT my best friend!" Harry turned in time to see Kimberly shove her way past her boyfriend, throwing a pair of long stemmed flowers to the ground as she did so, and exiting the Youth Center.

As soon as Kimberly's shouted words registered in Harry's mind, he turned once more to Trini just in time to pull her into another comforting hug at the sight of tears building in her eyes. "Hey…" Harry spoke in what he hoped was a soothing voice. "Don't take anything she's said to heart, Trini. We know there's something wrong with Kimberly, some kind of spell on her. How about I take this cactus back to the Command Center and see if Zordon can't work out what's going on, eh?"

Trini sniffed lightly, her face buried into Harry's shirt, and nodded. "Yeah… you're right." Trini straightened up and took a moment to wipe a few tears from her cheeks. She was still a bit red eyed from her brief cry, but looked alright otherwise. "And I have to go meet the members of my volleyball club anyway. Can't leave them waiting when they were all so excited, right?"

Harry nodded before exchanging a brief glance with Billy and Zack. "I'll be in touch. Let Jason and Tommy know what's going on, yeah?"

Zack and Billy blinked, as if confused for a second, before nodding in return. "Alright, man," Zack said. "We'll take care of it, no worries."

"Affirmative," Billy continued. "You just concentrate on discovering the source of Kimberly's perplexing behavior."

Checking on Trini once more and getting reassurances that she would be alright, Harry picked up the probably-cursed cactus.

And yet, as he made his way back to Ernie to spin a tale of wanting to deliver the cactus to Kimberly in the hopes of finding some way to cheer her up in the hopes of his employer giving him the rest of the afternoon off, Harry couldn't help but think that maybe Kimberly wasn't the only one acting strangely…

-MR-

All said, Ernie was more than willing to let Harry go. He really should have expected it to be honest, Ernie had never had problems with Harry randomly running of in the past, even if that meant leaving Ernie alone to run the Youth Center. Honestly, Harry was really starting to wonder why Ernie even hired him in the first place. As far as he could tell, the man had no problems running things by himself as it was, despite his insistence to the contrary back when he had first been hired. The only real benefit having Harry around gave Ernie was more time to play with mixing up different smoothie flavors.

Harry put his thoughts aside as he reached his warded teleportation/apparition point in an alley behind the Youth Center. He could ponder on Ernie's strange ways another time, preferably when there wasn't so much crazy going on in his life that an enchanted plant actually qualified as his current highest priority.

Arriving in the Command Center in a pillar of purple light, Harry was almost immediately inundated with the sounds of the alarms going off. "Ai yai yai!" Alpha shouted as the alarms shut off. "Harry! Be careful! That plant carries a spell placed up on it by Lord Zedd! It is very dangerous!"

Harry carefully set the potted cactus atop one of the computer consoles before speaking. "I guess that answers that question then. I felt a burst of Power in the Youth Center right before Kimberly started imitating her punk potioned self. She went off on Trini and Tommy both and had us all worried."

"I can imagine so, Harry." Zordon responded. "The spell placed upon the cactus is one to magnify jealousy. I would guess that Kimberly's actions were based on her own jealousy over the success of Trini's club when compared to her own and then magnified several times over by Lord Zedd's spell."

Harry paused for a moment before fixing his mentor with a narrow eyed gaze. "Why do I get the feeling that you already knew about this whole thing?"

Zordon looked slightly sheepish for a moment. "We detected an unknown source of Power in Angel Grove and narrowed it down to the Youth Center before it was triggered. Then we watched Kimberly's outburst on the Viewing Globe shortly before you arrived. I had had time to create a few theories already, I merely did not want to contact you or the other Rangers until we had more evidence. Evidence that you provided by bringing the source of the disturbance to the Command Center."

Harry nodded slowly. What Zordon said made sense, but why the look? Was there more to the story that the big head wasn't sharing?

Harry was prevented from further thoughts along that line by the return of the alarm klaxons. "Ai yai yai yai yai!" Alpha panicked again, apparently his default setting any time those alarms went off. "Zordon, Harry, the sensors are picking up a monster in Angel Grove!"

Without being directed, Harry turned to the Viewing Globe as it turned on, seeing the monster within its depths. This time, the monster was clearly plant based. Its legs seemed to be made up of twisted segments of roots and its arms were nothing but long, whip-like vines. Its body, however, was completely covered by several large pink and white flowers, each with a deeper pink colored stamen sticking out from them. The largest flower, near the top of what would be the front of the monster if the orientation of its limbs was anything to go by, had a single red eye in the center. Otherwise, the monster was completely without anything resembling a face.

"Initiating Deep-Grid Scan now, Zordon." Alpha said, once more pressing a seemingly random series of buttons. Whatever upgrades had been done to the computer and sensors since Zedd's arrival seemed to have worked wonders because it was only a few seconds before Alpha reported the results of the scan. "This monster is the Bloom of Doom. It is made from some of the flowers that Kimberly left in the Youth Center, specifically those given to her by Tommy before she stormed out. It seems that the monster is carrying a large quantity of potentially toxic pollen. If it releases it, it could spell disaster for anyone nearby!"

Harry blinked. So they got a name, what the monster came from, and a brief description of some of its capabilities. Heck, the Rangers had done more with less info on monsters in the past, sometimes not having anything more than a name. Having even this much about a new one was quite the pleasant surprise.

"Harry," Zordon said, drawing his apprentice's attention again. "Alpha and I will contact the other Rangers. You must morph to the city-side of the park right away and delay the Bloom of Doom until they arrive."

"Right, Zordon." Harry responded with a nod before he paused as a thought occurred to him. "But what about Kimberly? She still has that jealousy spell on her…"

"Unfortunately, there is little we can do about it at this moment. The type of spell Lord Zedd used is derived from a potion poured over the cactus. As such, and since it was not imbibed directly and in greater quantities, the spell should not last too long. We must hope that it does wear off before the fight becomes too dire."

Not quite liking the answer he got, but understanding that Zordon knew best in these situations, Harry nodded again. If the spell was caused by a potion, it could probably be fixed with some more of the singing squash juice they had used back when Billy and Kimberly had been punked shortly after Harry arrived in this dimension. But the fact of the matter was that the squash was rather hard to find, taking Zordon and Alpha more time to find last time around than they currently had, what with the monster in question rampaging already and arguably more dangerous to the civilians of Angel Grove than the Terror Toad had been.

Besides, with the excess Power Harry had noted in the other Rangers, the jealousy spell might even have worn off by the time Kimberly joined the fight.

With his concerns settled for the time being, or at least set to the side, Harry flicked his wrist, summoning his wand from its disillusioned holster and whipping it up into a dueling stance, once more going through the motions. "MAGI RANGER, POWER UP!"

-MR-

When the Magi Ranger appeared in a column of purple light in Angel Grove Park he found himself immediately surrounded by 8 Z-putties. "Well," Harry said, taking a fighting stance. "I can't say this has ever happened before. Usually you guys get called in to fight before we morph."

"I just felt like changing things up a little, Magi Ranger!" The voice that responded was higher pitched and sounded more female than anything else, but it also had a very high pitched echo accompanying it. It was a rather grating sound truth be told, and not one Harry wanted to hear too much.

Merlin, he hoped that this monster wasn't one of the more talkative ones.

Turning his head, Harry saw the Bloom of Doom standing outside the ring of putties, waving its tentacle arms around randomly as it chortled. "Now my putties," The monster squeaked again. "ATTACK!"

As one, the Z putties charged Harry, probably expecting him to fall rather easily to the numbers as might have been the case in the past. After all, the Magi Ranger had always been the weak link in hand-to-hand fighting against the monsters and putties in the past.

They just weren't expecting the boost in strength he got from the Elder Wand.

With a kiai, Harry quickstepped sideways before striking one putty in the chest with a side kick, impacting the "Z" and setting the construct to glowing and exploding right away. The other putties froze for a heartbeat, but it was enough for Harry to return to his ready stance and pick out his next target.

When the putties again resumed their charge, they were now close enough that Harry found himself penned in by several of them. In response, the Magi Ranger just leapt up into the air, flipping up and over the putties to land behind them and land another kick to the back of one that sent it tumbling into the rest of the group, knocking all but two of them down.

"Come on, guys," Harry taunted, gesturing for the two still standing to come at him. "How do you think you're going to beat me if you keep falling all over yourselves?"

Not showing any physical reaction to Harry's taunt, the two standing putties both leapt into the air toward him in a superman pose as if to land double-punches. Harry just stepped backward a few steps and watched as the putties landed face first on the ground. Shrugging, Harry hopped onto their backs, stomping down hard enough to press the "Z's" on their chest into the ground and trigger their destruction, stepping off of them just as they broke into pieces.

By this point, the remaining five had regained their feet and were twitching and weaving as they tended to do, glancing at each other occasionally in what might have been fear or caution if Harry were better able to read the largely expressionless construct's faces. "So," Harry asked idly, retaking his fighting stance. "Who's next?"

"ME!" Kimberly's voice came from nowhere as she leapt onto the scene, blade blaster out and in blade mode. The Pink Ranger landed amongst the putties and lashed out with her blade, sending all five flying away from her accompanied by sparks. Two of the putties had turned to face her enough that the attacks had hit their "Z's" and so they disintegrated as they fell, leaving three more for the two Rangers to face.

Harry just shrugged. "Works for me." With that said, Harry charged in, engaging one of the recovering putties that had landed behind Kimberly when she finished her attack while Kimberly took on the two in front of her. With a quick series of blows, Harry had the putty reeling away from him. At that point, all it took was a high block to prevent a clumsy overhead strike to open up the putty enough for a quick power-punch to destroy it.

Idly dusting off his hands, Harry turned to see that Kimberly had dealt with her two opponents as well and the Bloom of Doom was standing where it had been originally, still merrily swinging its tentacles as it watched its minions be destroyed. Harry was then interrupted by a pink figure getting right up into his face and jabbing a finger into his chest. "What did you think you were doing, you purple freak?"

"Uh…" Harry said eloquently. "What?"

Kimberly let out a groan of frustration, pushing Harry back a step with both hands. "I didn't need your help, Potter, so why don't you just butt out and let a real Power Ranger handle this."

"Harry, Kim!" Trini's voice came from behind him, prompting Harry to turn and see the other four Rangers running up.

"Hey, hey," Zack said. "It looks like we're a little late for the party."

"Back off, Zack." Kimberly snapped. "I don't need your help either." From behind her back, Kimberly produced what looked distinctly like a… pink ribbon on a stick… alright… and proceeded to twirl it around, causing the ribbon to extend to great lengths before, with a flick of Kimberly's wrist, it shot toward the monster and wrapped it up. Then, with a short hum of satisfaction, Kimberly grabbed the ribbon in her free hand and a bolt of pink electricity raced down it, slamming into the monster and knocking it to the ground accompanied by the usual shower of sparks.

"Great job, Kim!" Jason said/shouted, stepping up and dramatically clenching one fist before him. "Now let's turn this plant into mulch!"

"Right!" the other three core Rangers said, each of them drawing out their blade blasters, converting them to blade mode, and following Jason in his charge toward the monster. Harry just shrugged, warily eyeing Kimberly who now appeared to be grumbling under her breath, and summoned up the Magi Staff.

Unlike before regaining the Elder Wand, the staff now had a faint wood grain pattern on it. It was in no way any less durable than before, still being made of whatever kind of metal it had originally been, but the swirling pattern that had once existed on the Elder Wand now showed itself in his primary weapon. A purely cosmetic effect, aside from the general Power boost and all, but one that Harry still found appealing.

With a grunt of effort, Harry leapt into the air, gathering up some of his internal Power as he did and focusing it into his staff. Just as he reached the peak of his jump, the four charging Rangers reached the tied up Bloom of Doom which had regained its feet after Kimberly's attack. With their own battle cries, each of the four Rangers lashed out with their Blade Blasters sending the monster staggering back and forth between each Ranger. Finally, when Trini took her attack, the monster twisted enough to make her attack strike the ribbon it was tangled in, slicing through it easily and freeing the monster.

Kimberly, the tension on her ribbon-weapon suddenly gone, stumbled back a few steps even as the monster swung its tentacle arms out, knocking the other four away. Harry just jabbed his staff forward in midair, releasing his gathered Power in a purple ball of destruction with a fierce kiai as he started to fall back to the ground.

The monster must have sensed Harry's attack at the last second as it dove to the side mere moments before Harry's incomplete finisher struck, engulfing the immediate area in an explosion that obscured the monster from sight.

Jason, Trini, Zack, and Billy quickly made their way back to Kimberly's side as Harry landed, the Red Ranger even giving Harry a nod as he approached. "Good job, Harry."

Harry nodded in reply, but before he could say anything he was cut off by Kimberly once more ripping into Trini. "Way to go, Trini! I had that flower freak until you set it free!"

"Hey," Zack said quickly, stepping up to Trini's side. "What does it matter, Kim? The monster is gone anyway."

This seemed to remind Kimberly of Harry's actions as she quickly rounded on him. "And I already told you I didn't need your help, you freaking Brit!"

Then the Rangers all heard the monster's squeaking laughter as the smoke began to clear. As it turns out, the monster had only managed to partially dodge Harry's attack, leaving its right tentacle/arm burned away into a foot long stub and it entire right side heavily singed. "If you think that that's enough to defeat me, Power Rangers, then you don't know who you're messing with! Why don't you try some of my pollen!"

The monster began shaking itself then, each of the flowers around its body releasing a red-orange cloud of particles that were then caught in an artificial wind that was most likely called up by the monster as well. Because of the wind, the pollen was swept toward the assembled Rangers before any of them could react and quickly coated them all.

"GAH!" Harry cried out as his entire body was immediately engulfed in a burning sensation. Not only that, but his eyes began watering as well, presumably because his suit was bearing the brunt of the pollen's effect, but not quite all of it as his eyes were still being irritated by the attack.

"What the heck is this stuff?" Jason shouted, flailing around along with the other Rangers, none of them able to work up the energy to try and get out of the cloud of pollen while dealing with the sensory overload at the same time.

"It must be some kind of incendiary pollen!" Billy reported back, falling to one knee as he did so.

The monster resumed its laughter, adding an auditory torture on top of the burning they were already feeling. "And now you know what kind of trouble you're really in, Power Rangers. You cannot defeat the Bloom of Doom."

"Damn it!" Kimberly raged, dropping to her own knees. "I can't get this stuff off! This is all your fault, Trini!"

Something in Harry snapped at the same time as he was hit with a burst of inspiration. With a grunt, Harry released a pulse of Kinetic energy, cleaning his suit of all the pollen and making the burning sensation fade immediately. Not only that, but it also managed to push the entire cloud up and away from him and those nearest to him at the same time. In this case, that meant Kimberly and Billy. Acting quickly, Harry rounded on Kimberly and put a hand on her helmeted head. "I am really getting sick of this stupid potion's effect on your attitude!" With some tight focus, mindful of his general lack of control at the moment, Harry pushed a careful tendril of Power into Kimberly, teasing up the extra Power within her and directing it toward the spell Zedd had placed onto her.

All he really needed to do was get it going, because once her own Power found the foreign magic, the entirety of it surged up and smashed into the jealousy amplification spell, completely breaking down what was left of it and returning Kimberly to her normal mindset. This done, Harry waved his staff, releasing pure Wizarding magic this time, and summoned up a gust of wind to blow the rest of the pollen off of and away from the other Rangers. Between the Rangers and the monster, the two winds met, creating a miniature tornado of pollen and magic that distorted each side's view of the other.

The Bloom of Doom laughed again. "You may have saved your friends from my poisonous pollen for the moment, Magi Ranger, but can you keep it up? As soon as your wind dies down, my pollen will incapacitate you again and I will destroy each of you at my leisure!"

On Harry's part, he knew that he could probably keep up such a minor wind spell for several hours, more than enough time for the Rangers to either move out of the way, teleport away, or find some other angle of attack. But based on the upsurge of Power he was sensing now, he didn't think he'd need to wait that long.

"POWER AXE!" "POWER BOW!" "POWER DAGGERS!" "POWER LANCE!" "POWER SWORD!"

As one, the five Rangers gathered beneath their assembled weapon and caught it as it dropped from the sky. "POWER BLASTER, FIRE!"

From the multiple barrels of the Power Blaster, several lances of color shot forth, swirling together to become one homogenous beam of destruction that then shot through the twister of pollen and struck the Bloom of Doom before it could even attempt to dodge. The ensuing explosion was several times larger than the one Harry had caused, but it was only when the monster's wind pushing its pollen around died down that Harry felt it was safe to end his own spell. That the pollen then began vanishing was enough sign for him that the monster had been destroyed by the Ranger's blast.

Yet another battle won.

-MR-

Back at the Command Center, Harry and the Rangers had just finished their post battle debriefing. It was a thankfully short one this time since the battle itself had been comparably short. This was especially good since Harry had a few pointed questions for Zordon.

"Well done once again, Power Rangers." Zordon congratulated the team. "And a special congratulations to you, Harry. Not only have you demonstrated how your enhanced Powers allow you to fight against the Z putties much more effectively, but it was because of your quick thinking that the spell on Kimberly was broken as soon as it was, allowing her to once again work together with the others. Without that, the battle may have drawn on much longer."

"Yeah, and I really can't thank you enough for that," Kimberly said, relief in her voice. "Looking back, I can't believe I said so much of what I did." She turned to Trini now, her face growing sad. "Trini, can you ever forgive me for everything I said? For being such a brat?"

Trini's wide smile put paid all of Kimberly's worries as she gave her friend a hug. "Don't even worry about it Kim. I know it was just Zedd's spell talking. Our friendship is rock solid."

Harry waited for the two girls to separate before speaking. "You do know that she isn't the only one you need to apologize to though, right?"

Out of the corner of his eye, Harry noticed Zack and Billy giving him a rather surprised look. It wasn't until Kimberly spoke next that he realized what they must have thought. "Oh, Harry! Of course I'm sorry for what I said to you too!"

The slightly offended tone that Kimberly used more than clued Harry in on what the other Rangers thought. Even Trini had a slight frown on her face. Harry just shook his head, waving Kimberly's words off. "Kimberly, I wasn't talking about me." Harry ignored the others' sheepish and apologetic looks and continued. "By the time you rounded on me, I already knew about the potion, so I wouldn't hold it against you anyway. But Trini and I weren't the only ones you shouted at…"

Kimberly took on a thoughtful look for several seconds, but seemed unable to think of anyone. Harry's eyes narrowed slightly before he spoke. "Your boyfriend…?"

Kimberly's eyes shot wide. "OH MY GOSH, TOMMY! Zordon, guys, I… I have to go, like right now!" Without any further hesitation, Kimberly activated her communicator and teleported out of the Command Center in a column of pink light.

Harry just shook his head, his face more than displaying his concern. "Now come on guys, you can't tell me that that wasn't weird. She didn't even think of Tommy until I prompted her."

When none of the other Rangers responded, Harry felt his worries grow even further. "Guys, is there something going on here that I don't know about? That Tommy doesn't know about." The others just looked confused at Harry's question, but still didn't respond.

Zordon's voice was the next to break the silence. "Whatever might be going on with Kimberly can be solved another time, Rangers. I suggest you all return to your civilian lives and take some time to rest. There is no telling when Lord Zedd might strike again."

With various mumbled confirmations, the four remaining core Rangers prepared to teleport back. It wasn't until Trini noticed that Harry wasn't doing the same that she spoke. "Are you coming, Harry?"

Harry shook his head briefly. "Not just yet. I have a few things to take care of here still. I'll catch up to you at the Youth Center, alright?"

Trini smiled at him and nodded before the four teleported away in their signature colors.

Harry immediately spun around to face Zordon. "Alright, Zordon, spill it. What's going on here?"

The floating head actually looked rather troubled. "I… I cannot say for certain just yet, Harry… One possibility is that Lord Zedd's spell was more subtle and longer lasting than we had thought. That this attempt to destabilize the team started weeks ago and the jealousy spell only triggered an effect that had been lingering within her for some time. One that still lingers on in her even now."

Harry hummed in thought, using his Occlumency enhanced mind to run through everything he knew about mind and personality altering magics, both Grid powered (relatively little) and Wizarding (only slighty more). Finally, he gave off a reluctant nod. "I'll admit that those kinds of spells aren't my strongest suit, but I suppose it could be possible, I just don't know that that would be it. When I triggered Kim's inherent Power to flush out the jealousy spell, there wasn't anything else in there. And with all the Power that the others have in them already, any kind of spell wouldn't stick to them for very long. Not without constant reapplication anyway, and I'm sure we would have noticed something like that. Besides all that, I've checked all five of the others for spells like that recently and turned up nothing."

Zordon gave his own nod before closing his eyes. "You might be correct on that, Harry. I… I must admit that I had heard of your concerns before now… Some of the other Rangers had become worried that there may be a spell of some kind on you…" Harry just scoffed internally. He was sure that "some" was only one and that one was Jason. "… Or that you were jumping at shadows without any clear sign of movement from Lord Zedd. But knowing of the love between Kimberly and Tommy and seeing Kimberly's actions just now for myself, I cannot help but agree with you."

"Ai yai yai… Poor Kimberly and Tommy…" Alpha said, his voice as sad as Harry had ever heard. "What could be wrong?"

Zordon shook his head slowly. "While I still feel that this must be something Zedd has done, there are relatively few ways that such an effect could be caused without us detecting it, as you suggested, Harry. I shall endeavor to investigate other possibilities. In the meantime, I ask that you watch over the others for any other signs of them acting out of character. We must discover the source of this problem before it destroys the Power Rangers from the inside."

Harry just nodded as he prepared to teleport out of the Command Center. Whatever was going on, somehow Harry got the feeling that Zedd wasn't the true source. He certainly wouldn't object to Zordon checking on his other theories for how Zedd could have been behind it. But what if he really wasn't. In that case, the next question was obvious: if not Zedd, then what?

Or who…

-MR-

AN: A lot of you were so sure that Kimberly's dismissing of Tommy before the Elder fight was just early signs of what led to the dear john letter that annoyed so many of us back in the 90's. Well, all I have to say is "not quite." This is one of those many plot points I have introduced in the last few chapters that are going to be themes for at least a portion of the Season 2 stuff. As I think I said before, I'm trying to go a bit more complex with my writing this time around. Call it an experiment if you will. Hope you all like it. : )

So this one fought me a bit. Probably had something to do with me getting sick while writing it, so sick I actually had to call in to work, which I absolutely hate doing, so that's a thing too…

The episode I based this one off of, The Bloom of Doom, had the Rangers each forming their own clubs for people to join. It also featured Principal Caplan stating that many people were in the auditorium instead of at the Youth Center. It turns out this was Caplan's fault as revealed at the end of the episode, and was also why nobody signed up at Kimberly's booth as they were all in the auditorium, but it got me thinking. Is the Youth Center not its own building? I mean, we know it is from canon since we see scenes of the Youth Center as being separate from the school, aerial footage and all that, but Caplan seemed to be implying that either the YC set was not separate, or they were using it as a part of the school for this episode. Which, while stupid, also makes sense just because we're talking about Season 2, and lots of stupid stuff happens in Season 2. XP

I know that on the wiki and maybe even in episode, it is implied that the Bloom of Doom was created from the cactus that Zedd swapped out for his enchanted one, but I feel that the "flowers" that Ernie gave Tommy to try and cheer Kimberly up with (which were totally not anything resembling plastic by the way) look much closer to the monster. It's one of those details that I feel was probably added in by the writers that got overlooked in the final production. The flowers Ernie gave Tommy looked way too fake, and their existence was way too convenient for it to be otherwise. They just went with Zedd making the monster from the cactus instead of taking up screen time to show the fate of those flowers after Kimberly left the Youth Center. Instead, I had Kim leave them behind. From there, Zedd zapped them and instantly transported the monster away. So mote it be. : )

So this episode was also another one of those where Ranger X gets caught in spacial warp/pocket dimension/whatever by the monster, but in this case, Billy theorized that Trini could break through the dimension and free Kimberly by "throwing her daggers at a 90 degree angle." …Yeah… I really didn't know how to use that, so I didn't. It was a little too ridiculous/stupid even for me. : )

The "pink ribbon on a stick" is actually canon. It was a "special weapon" that Zordon and Alpha sent to Kimberly to help her defeat the Bloom of Doom. Of course, the entire battle after morphing was rather disjointed and somewhat difficult to follow. At one point, they were all in the park, then Kimberly and Trini were in a more urban area, the others nowhere to be seen. Then everyone but Kim were in the Command Center while she was trapped in the earlier mentioned pocket dimension place… yeah, sometimes I get the feeling that Power Rangers (especially Season 2) would be easier to follow if I didn't overanalyze everything about it, but I just can't help myself.

Also, the wiki indicates that Zordon and Alpha call Kimberly first, even though it actually shows her being called last and all the Rangers actually arrive at the same time… meh.

I watched the episode in question here to get more inspiration and direction, specifically for Kimberly's "jealous" lines. But it when it came time for the monster battle, I almost wrote Green Ranger Tommy into it, since he was still a Ranger in canon when the Bloom of Doom arrived. Barely caught that one. lol

So I hope you like this once again longer chapter. I was actually surprised when I saw how long it came out to be. Certainly not complaining though. Don't want my muse to quit outright. I do apologize for it being a bit late though. I usually post in the morning (my time) and this one didn't get posted until nearly 12 hours later than I normally would have. I'm very sorry about that one…

Anyway, thanks for reading and don't forget to review,

Tenstar12


	47. Chapter 47

Magi Ranger

By: Tenstar12

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or Power Rangers.

 **Chapter 47, or Gettin' Bugged…**

In the days and weeks following Zordon's agreeing that something was wrong with the Rangers, and in light of him having no better ideas of his own, Harry did as his mentor had asked of him: watching over his teammates and looking for other hints as to what was wrong. To this end, Harry paid especially close attention to them where he was around them most outside of battle: the Youth Center.

As Tommy had explained to him, the clubs formed by the other Rangers had been led by said Rangers for a week. After that point, leadership of the respective clubs turned over to whichever member wanted it, with the sole exception of Zack's Hip-Hop Kido club, which he had, as Harry predicted, folded into his regular weekly classes.

Jason and Tommy's karate club had been more of a teaser type series of meetings. Demonstrations by either black belt were followed by simple lessons to teach some of the more basic moves, all with the intent of creating interest in those club members who weren't already part of either teen's karate classes. Ultimately, that club had just ended as neither of the leaders could continue and none of the students were skilled enough to take over. Some of them had indeed approached Jason and Tommy about further lessons, but there wasn't really much more to be said.

Billy's science club was the first one where, upon investigation, things had gone oddly. By week's end, the club had largely turned into a study group/tutoring session where all the members got help on their homework, primarily science to stay within the regulations Principal Caplan had laid out for Billy. The Blue Ranger did indeed lead most of the sessions, save where the topic being discussed wasn't within his field of expertise (which only really happened when they would stray away from the sciences). One point of interest was one of the members of this club: Marge, the girl that Harry and the other Rangers had thought might have been a romantic interest for the Blue Ranger at one time. At the end of the week though, Billy's actions put that theory to rest in Harry's mind.

Once the week was up and Billy was relieved of his obligatory role as the leader, a role Marge then stepped into, he had absolutely no interaction with the club at all. While Billy continued on with any tutoring activity he had already been a part of, the objects of which he had typically encouraged to join his science club, he no longer sought out any of the other members. In fact, unless one of them actively approached him, including Marge, Billy seemed to completely forget that any of them existed for all the thought that was directed toward them, again including Marge.

Much like how Kimberly seemed to be forgetting Tommy.

And if they hadn't already started a relationship, Harry doubted that Marge would be up for it after the type of unintentional-though-she-doesn't-know-that spurning Billy had been doing.

Speaking of Kimberly, her gardening club, after discovering that the lack of signups had been because Principal Caplan had mistakenly told the student body that that particular club booth was in the school auditorium instead of the Youth Center, had put together a decorative garden near the entrance to Angel Grove Park. After that, nothing. It took them a week to finish that garden and, like Billy, when Kimberly's obligation was fulfilled, she dropped it completely. Without her to drive the group onward to another project, the club completely collapsed. This was especially odd since Harry normally would have pegged Kimberly as sticking with the club after how upset she had been when nobody seemed to be signing up. Especially since her jealousy had been enough to draw Zedd's attention as an opportunity to exploit.

It was nearly enough to make Harry's head hurt.

As for Trini, she was both the easiest and most difficult for Harry to keep an eye on. Easiest because he had the most readymade excuse as her boyfriend to spend time around her. Hardest because she arguably knew him better than the other Rangers and so was more easily able to pick up on something bothering him. But he knew he couldn't confide his suspicions and worries to her, not the least reason of which was that if who or whatever was affecting his fellow Rangers caught on that he was suspicious (beyond how obvious he had already been with Tommy's plight), then they may do more to hide themselves, making his and Zordon's jobs that much harder.

In any case, Trini's club went similarly to a mix between Jason and Tommy's club and Kimberly's. In this case, the group met up daily to play volleyball together, but when the week was up and Trini left, the group actually stayed together and continued to meet up to play, drawn together by their mutual love for the sport.

But much as with Billy, Trini had completely ignored anything but direct approaches from her former club, not even mentioning further meetings or anything like that from what had essentially been her brain child. And from his outgoing and ever eager to help girlfriend, that was especially concerning to Harry.

In addition to his observations at the Youth Center and just generally when the Rangers hung out, a combination of Zordon through the Viewing Globe and Hedwig following them was used to investigate each of the Rangers' home lives. To that end, Hedwig followed each of the Rangers home in turn, silently following them as only an owl can and further hidden by a disillusionment charm from Harry. She observed each of them for an evening and noted that, while they certainly were showing different behavior in public, they seemed to be completely normal at home, or at least not so different that their parents weren't just disregarding it as teens being teens. These were all result that Zordon's observations agreed with, so in the end, no help coming from that angle.

Not even Alpha's hacking into school computers and records could turn up any further unusual activities for the Rangers noted there.

So far, all they had come up with was that whatever was effecting the Rangers made them ignore a lot of people in their lives. They had originally said "all," but then thought about it more and realized that Jason, and Zack weren't ignoring their students, Billy wasn't ignoring those he tutored, etc. Also, there wasn't any discernable difference in their family dynamics as far as they could tell from the outside, so they weren't ignoring anyone there. And then there was the fact that, while they were engaged in the clubs they created for that week, they were fully engaged. Talking with club members both during and outside of club hours about club activities. Then, once they were over, with the exception of Zack because those interested got folded into his regular students, the Rangers just forgot about the lot of them.

In fact, the only ones that seemed to be beyond the scope of the effect were the other Rangers, Alpha, and Zordon himself.

Their actions were so conditional that Harry, Alpha, and Zordon couldn't even settle on what exactly the total effect on the Rangers even _was_ much less who or what caused it.

Back on the Tommy and Kimberly front, Harry had explained his and Zordon's observations, as well as the concerns the other Rangers (*cough*Jason*cough*) had raised about Harry himself. This revelation that there might well be something wrong with the Rangers, particularly Kimberly, that made them (her) act like they had been actually took a fair bit of weight off of Tommy's back. When coupled with Kimberly's increased diligence in keeping her dates and such with Tommy, the former Green Ranger was closer to his old self than he had been in some time.

Kimberly had taken to carrying around a planner with her in which she wrote down literally everything she needed to do on any given day, specifically where Tommy was regarded, typically writing it down the moment it first came up. While she still hadn't seemed to acknowledge that the problem went further than a bit of forgetfulness on her part, her ritualistic checking of that planner had allowed her to keep a number of dates and the like over the weeks following the Bloom of Doom's attack.

Which led nicely into Zedd's activity over the same time period. In the roughly three weeks since Bloom of Doom was defeated, Zedd had sent another monster to attack each week. They weren't exactly a week apart each, as that would have made things a bit too easy, but Zedd had seemingly settled on an approximate time frame for each attack after his previous inactivity.

As with Rita, each Zedd attack was typically accompanied by Z-Putties. Though in Zedd's case, the monster was usually there at the same time as the putties, leading to morphing before the putties attacked which made the fights that much easier for the empowered Rangers.

The first such monster, striking 6 days after the Bloom of Doom, was actually a two for one deal. Kimberly had managed to keep her first big date with Tommy in quite a while, and as part of her planning, had decided to borrow a "lucky purse" from her mother, one that was reportedly used by her mother on her first date with Kimberly's father.

Upon hearing this, Harry carefully decided not to bring up that Kimberly's parents were divorced, a fact he had learned during earlier bonding with the Pink Ranger after their shared time in the Samurai Fan Man's jar, which hardly lent credence to the purse's luck value.

Add onto the purse a similarly "lucky lipstick" borrowed from Trini (who only blushed when Harry asked why it was lucky), and Kimberly was all ready for her date with Tommy. As with most such dates in Angel Grove (at least in Harry's limited experience), the two had decided to take a walk in the park before getting something to eat. This was unfortunately (read: predictably) interrupted when putties attacked the two teens, stealing Kimberly's mother's purse before the teens could react which Zedd then turned into the monster Pursehead.

This monster managed to freeze Kimberly in place and spent some time toying with the Powerless Tommy before doing the same to him. By the time Zordon and Alpha had managed to call in the other Rangers to face this monster and rescue their friends, Zedd had created another monster from Trini's lipstick that had been in the purse. So came Lipsyncher, who Zedd almost immediately grew to giant size and set toward Angel Grove proper.

The Rangers were forced to split up, with Jason going off to summon his Thunderzord and battle against Lipsyncher while Harry, Zack, Billy, and Trini went to battle Pursehead. The battle had been rather short, all things considered, as Harry was able to break the spell over Kimberly and Tommy, allowing the Pink Ranger to join the battle and help her teammates overwhelm and destroy Pursehead while Harry covered Tommy. Afterwards, it had been a simple matter for the other Thunderzords to be called in to relive the struggling Jason, the Thunder Megazord formed, and Lipsyncher destroyed.

With Zedd's attempt at a pure power play with the Pursehead and Lipsyncher monsters overcome, the Emperor of Evil seemingly decided to go for more subtlety the next time around. A mere three days later, on the first Monday after the Rangers' clubs ended, he cast a spell on two pairs of sunglasses that Zack had gotten for him and Billy to use as safety glasses during a science experiment in class.

Apparently normal, properly transparent safety glasses didn't look good enough…

In any case, the spell on the glasses had caused the two Rangers to see all the other Rangers as Z-Putties, even after removing the glasses, which apparently led to no small amount of trouble for them at school when they panicked over a putty attack in the halls when it was just Jason, Trini, and Kimberly walking up to them.

The end result was rather anticlimactic as, once the two got to the Command Center after serving a detention for "causing a disturbance" at the school with their Putty attack scare, Harry was able to identify and break the spell they were under with a similar method to what he had done with Kimberly and the jealousy amplification spell. He certainly wasn't complaining, but when a spell is broken by making the target's own internal Power aware of its existence, it wasn't really an effective tactic.

Once the spell had been broken, the Rangers were able to easily engage and defeat the Saliguana, Zedd's latest monster created from a class pet at Angel Grove High, which was effectively a large, bipedal, fire breathing lizard. This time, Harry really didn't even have to be there, or at least that's how he felt, since the other five Rangers were almost easily able to overwhelm the monster, destroying it with the Power Blaster before Zedd was able to grow it while Harry just stood back and watched, effectively left out of battle by how seamlessly the others were fighting.

The next week was a rather interesting one for Harry. It all started when Ernie told Harry that he was hiring another extra pair of hands in the hopes of training him up before school let out and the busier Summer season started. As luck would have it, Harry was introduced to Richie later on that same day. He was a somewhat tall teen, or taller than Harry anyway, with brown hair that seemed rather carefully styled, and a bright smile that he often flashed to the patrons of the snack bar. Particularly the female patrons.

It wasn't until Harry caught sight of Trini walking into the Youth Center that he really had any problem with him. Said problem started when Richie walked up next to him and asked. "Hey, Harry, can you tell me anything about that chick in yellow over there? What kind of person she is, what she likes, that sort of thing."

Harry shot Richie a look out of the corner of his eye before responding. "Well, her name is Trini Kwan, she's friends with Kimberly, Jason, Billy, Zack, and Tommy," Harry pointed out each of the teens who were all conveniently in the Youth Center at the time, "though she's nice to just about anyone. She's very helpful whenever asked and generally always looks for ways to help out, be it the environment, a school project, or what have you." Harry paused there as if taking a moment to think before continuing. "Oh, she's also my girlfriend."

Harry finished his statement by turning toward Richie and giving him a bit of a flat look. He had intended it as a sort of teasing joke, but the calculating look in Richie's eyes made him think he might have miscalculated. In response, the teen merely nodded slowly, still giving that same look to Harry before turning back to his work at the grill. Internally, Harry noted to keep an eye on him.

Later on that same day, when Richie took his break, Harry watched him make a bee line for where Trini and Kimberly were and strike up a conversation. He couldn't hear what was said, but based on the looks on the girl's faces, they quickly became less than happy with Richie. Especially when Trini nodded in Harry's direction and Richie's response was accompanied by a dismissive wave of his arms.

When he returned from his shorter than expected break, Richie slowed briefly as he passed behind Harry at the counter. "Round one to you, Potter, but I haven't lost a girl once I set my eyes on her yet." By the time Harry spun around, Richie had already taken his spot back at the grill where Ernie bustled over to continue teaching him. This only made him that much more determined to keep an eye on the teen. He was crafty, or at least thought himself so, and if he planned on trying to insert himself between Harry and Trini he may end up finding more than he bargained for.

Idly, Harry also noted to review some of the pranking spells the Weasley twins had taught him back at Hogwards via his Occlumency. He had a feeling they just might come in handy sometime soon.

On the following Wednesday, Harry and Trini went to a beach near Angel Grove once Trini got out of school for the day. It was quite an experience for Harry as, what with all the craziness in his life in his old world and this newer one, he still had never been to a beach outside of Ranger battles. So the two spent some time walking and talking, hand in hand down the beach until someone called out Trini's name. It turned out to be one of her neighbors, a ten year old girl named Hallie.

The girl had then drawn the two into her current pursuit of building sand castles, prompting Harry to try and recreate Hogwarts in a fit of whimsy, though only managing to get a slightly square-ish pile of sand by the time he was done, which at least entertained the girls, so that was something. Richie had walked past a few times, the first time or two not being noticed by Trini, which was apparently his goal as when he did catch her eye on his third pass he tried to insert himself into their group. Even Hallie saw through his attempt to get close to Trini and was more than happy to turn him down in the rude way only a child can get away with before Harry and Trini could even try.

Richie retreat was then facilitated by Bulk and Skull's latest attempt to draw out and unmask the Power Rangers: dressing up like putties and causing trouble on the beach. Aside from the fact that their disguises were terrible, the two bullies managed to knock down a young boy's sand castle, which prompted said child to kick Bulk in the shin, which was more than enough to chase the two bullies off with the boy running after them flinging sand their way.

The moment of humor was then ruined by screams as Hallie, who had wandered off a bit after Richie left, was nabbed by putties accompanied by Goldar. Before Trini and Harry could reach her, the entire group vanished, leaving behind a glass bottle that, when opened, proved to hold encoded instructions for Goldar to bring Hallie to somewhere called Venus Island. This was all learned later on in the Command Center, where Zordon revealed to the collected Ranger team that Venus Island existed in a pocket dimension Zedd controlled and that only opened for 24 hour stretches as he willed it to and it was primarily used as a prison or for converting new followers to his cause.

The end result was the six Rangers launching a rescue mission to the now open pocket dimension. Of course this ended up being a trap as a gloating Goldar revealed once they encountered him on the island. The bottle had been a plant to lure the Rangers to the island where Zedd could leave them trapped for all eternity with the island's inhabitant monster, the Invenusable Flytrap.

This led to Harry using his magic, mostly Wizarding magic as his control over his Power was still sketchy at best, to hold open the exit to the pocket dimension. Essentially, he just flung magic at it, occasionally supported by largely uncontrolled bursts of Power. That, coupled with Zedd's general lack of strength after the effort of opening the portal in the first place and his distance from it relative to Harry's, was enough to hold it open long enough for the other Rangers to defeat the Invenusable Flytrap, save Hallie, and for them all to escape together.

Yet again, Harry hadn't had much of any input into the battle other than being an object for the Rangers to defend. More than once, one of the others had leapt in front of him, his focus on keeping the exit open as it was, to take a hit when the monster turned its attention toward the helpless Magi Ranger. So this time, he was arguably more of a liability in battle than ever before. True, the Rangers would have been trapped were it not for his presence, since they wouldn't have left Hallie there regardless, but that was his sole contribution.

Harry had known that with their new Power and without Zedd having a Power boost like Rita did with the Elder Wand, he wouldn't be quite as essential for the Rangers' victory as he had once been, but it was still a bit shocking how little he had been needed in battle these past weeks.

Still, that did give him an opportunity to begin to further his own plans for his private life.

This brings us to Sunday, March 13th, 1994, with Harry coming in to the Youth Center to begin his shift, thankfully one without Richie to deal with, to find Ernie down on the cleared out main floor of the building instead of behind the snack bar as per usual. In addition, he was seemingly talking to himself as he ran about, hunched over with a broom in hand and swinging it at a bright green ball that was bouncing around. As Harry came closer, he spotted the other Rangers and Tommy sitting at a nearby table and redirected himself that way just as Ernie, with a mighty swing, knocked the ball into a small soccer goal that had been set up inside the building before turning to face the Rangers.

"And that's how it's done!" Ernie declared with a smile on his face. "So what do you say? Will you guys play?"

The Rangers exchanged glances, clearly unsure how to answer, until Trini caught sight of Harry. "Harry!" she called out, easily redirecting Ernie's attention. "There you are. Where've you been?"

Harry raised an eyebrow as he walked over to stand next to Trini's chair, idly giving her a one armed hug as he did. "Alright…" he said slowly before turning his attention to his boss. "What's all this stuff out here for, Ernie?"

Ernie, his enthusiasm not fading a bit. "I'm glad you asked, Harry. You see, a Youth Center from Stone Canyon challenged me to a game of Broom Ball, and I accepted."

Ernie stopped talking at that point, just looking at Harry with an expectant smile on his face. "Alright…" Harry said again. "Well, the last time I checked, we didn't have a team to play Broom Ball, nor have I really even heard of it until now, so why did you accept?"

Ernie just shook his head in exasperation. "It's a matter of pride, Harry. Their Youth Center challenged ours! My Youth Center! I couldn't just let that slide!"

Harry just sighed. "And let me guess, you're wanting all of us to play on your team?"

Ernie nodded happily before shooting Harry a sly look. "Hey, I have no problem with stacking the deck in my favor, you know?"

When none of the teens responded, Ernie quickly spoke again. "I mean you seven are easily the most athletic and helpful teens in this whole place. Heck, between you all, more than half the clubs and activity groups are represented, and most of those you guys _lead_! If nothing else, you could probably run circles around anybody Stone Canyon can field just because of that!"

"Hnn… not likely" A voice came from toward the entrance to the Youth Center entrance hallway. Harry, Ernie, and the others all turned to see a pair of teens, one boy and one girl, both blonde and both wearing black, "Stone Canyon Beetles" shirts featuring a humanoid beetle wielding a broom. "Our team is undefeated in two years, it would be impossible for a team of total newbies to beat us."

Harry quirked his eyebrow again. "And is that how you got your two year winning streak? By only challenging Youth Centers or whatever organization that didn't already have an existing team so you could beat them because of that fact alone?"

When the two Stone Canyon teens didn't respond, Harry turned slightly and shot a look to the other Rangers. "I mean, that only makes sense, right? Had any of you heard of Broom Ball before today? Before Ernie got challenged and all but tricked into put the pride of his Youth Center on the line to satisfy these guys' egos?"

Catching on a bit, the other Rangers shook their heads, hiding their smirks as best they could as Harry turned the newcomers' taunts back onto them. "So tell me," Harry continued, turning back to the two with a small smirk of his own. "Just how many completely unprepared, largely untrained, and totally unproven teams of teens and children have you beaten at this mostly unheard of game to achieve your remarkable winning streak?"

"It doesn't matter," one of the teens finally responded. "All that matters is the game. So are you in or not?"

There was another pregnant pause as all the Rangers (and Tommy) met eyes before Jason spoke for them all. "We'll take you on. You've got a game."

The two challenging teens demeanor changed quite quickly as they went from uneasy back to cocky in an instant. "Good. See you game day then." With that, they turned and quick walked back out, only pausing momentarily to hang an advertising poster on the Youth Center message board. Apparently the Angel Grove Youth Center would be hosting the game too.

Harry just rolled his eyes.

Ernie brought their attention back to him with a clap of his hands. "Alright team, let's get to practicing then, alright? We've only got a few days before our first match, and we need to beat those guys for the sake of the Angel Grove Youth Center!"

After receiving a less than totally enthusiastic response from the Rangers, Ernie turned and bustled off to a box in the corner of the room. As it turned out, he had already planned on wheedling the Rangers' cooperation one way or another as he had already obtained team shirts, each with the players' name printed on the back, so they all had uniforms naming them as the "Angel Grove Sweepers" when they took up the brand new brooms Ernie had also acquired and started batting the ball back and forth to each other.

For Harry, he was relegated to the role of Assistant Coach. He wasn't terribly unhappy about that as, despite enjoying playing Quidditch back at Hogwarts and the fact that this sport too seemed rather broom-centric, there didn't seem to be a Seeker like role for him to fill, so he doubted that he'd be any real kind of help on the team. Aside from that, team membership, at least for those playing, had apparently been limited to those of school age and actively in school, so he wouldn't have been able to play anyway seeing as he had "graduated" according to those forged records from Zordon and Alpha.

Though this little tidbit did little to raise his opinion of the Stone Canyon Beetles and their challenge.

After thirty or so minutes of watching the practice from Ernie's side. Harry was introduced to the real main part of his job as Assistant Coach of the Sweepers: running the snack bar while Ernie was occupied with his latest obsession. So it was that, while the Rangers spent the next few hours of their Sunday learning the allegedly noble sport of Broom Ball, Harry spent a frantic few hours cooking food, mixing drinks, and making sales to the Youth Center's other patrons, many of which were merely watching the practice taking place since Ernie had effectively shut down the rest of the Youth Center for the purpose of preserving the pride of his place of business.

Harry merely sighed as he took yet another order and started preparing it. Nothing to do now but hope that the Rangers (and Tommy) picked up things fast enough that Ernie became satisfied with their progress for the day and turned them all loose before Harry collapsed from the frantic pace he was maintaining behind the counter.

-MR-

It took a total of three hours of running through the basics before Ernie was satisfied, though when he ended practice he told them that they would be running through some basic strategy and plays when they got out of school the next day, so they should come prepared for another workout.

Many of the watching patrons had enjoyed seeing the team coming together for this new and unusual sport (to them at least), and could be heard making plans to return the next day. Harry could almost feel his muscles protesting another full day like the one he had just had. At least Richie would be there the next day to take off some of the strain, even though he was only partially trained and tended to spend an inordinate amount of time staring at Trini, probably in the hopes of catching her eye and dazzling her with his smile.

Or whatever he was planning…

In any case, Kimberly and Tommy had invited Harry and Trini to accompany them to the park where they all planned to cool down for a while with a leisurely stroll around the lake. It was while they were enjoying the breeze coming off the cool lake waters helping to soothe their tired muscles (the Rangers getting just as much of a workout as Harry under Ernie's relentless orders), that they suddenly found themselves surrounded by Putties.

"What the!" Tommy shouted, recoiling slightly before he, and the others, all slipped into fighting stances. "These must be the new putties you told me about. They're even uglier in person."

Harry snorted briefly before responding. "Yep, these are them alright."

Kimberly nodded, shooting her no longer Powered boyfriend a concerned glance. "Just remember, aim for the 'Z' in the middle of their chests to destroy them. You have to hit it pretty hard, but they go down like wet paper when you do."

Tommy nodded back, a fire in his eyes that Harry hadn't seen since before he lost his Power. "Got it, let's do this, guys."

With that, the four Rangers charged at the dozen Z-putties surrounding them. Harry himself engaged a pair of them with another pair a short distance away, leading off with a punch combo that alternated between the two putties to keep them off guard and drive them backwards, trying to get more room to fight.

Finally, one putty blocked one of his punches, leaving the other one to grab his arm while the first landed a punch of its own to Harry's stomach, knocking him back a step. He didn't get far though as the putty holding his arm yanked him forward, easily flipping him up and over its shoulder to land on his back between the four Z-Putties.

Harry grit his teeth as he drew on his internal Power supply, releasing it in an unfocused kinetic wave, pushing the putties back and knocking one of them off its feet entirely, giving him the room to scramble back onto his own feet and retake his stance. When one of the putties charged him, Harry sidestepped its punch before knocking the construct's arm to the side and delivering a straight palm strike right to the emblem on its chest, then, while that putty was lighting up and nearing its exploding point, Harry banished it back into one of its fellows. The first putty's explosion then triggered the "Z" on the second, setting it to self-destructing as well.

Pressing his advantage, Harry moved to engage his next target, only to have a green clad blur cut him off as Tommy leapt into battle with his signature, "Aiya! Si-Aiya!" In a pair of quick strikes, Tommy took the putties completely off guard and set them to exploding much faster than Harry would have been able to. The former Ranger shot Harry an excited look before racing off to help Kimberly finish off her last putty even as Trini finished off hers.

Harry just shook his head and relaxed his stance a bit as he moved to join Trini who was doing much the same, having seen Tommy essentially steal Harry's opponents. "I haven't seen him this worked up in a long time, have you?" Harry asked his girlfriend, a fond smile on his face.

Trini shook her head, though said nothing as she leaned into Harry's shoulder a bit, prompting him to wrap an arm around her. Tommy, having wiped out Kimberly's last putty as easily as he did Harry's, had picked up Kimberly and was swinging her around in his excitement.

"Wow!" he was nearly cheering as he set a laughing Kimberly down. "I can't believe how much I missed all this."

Kimberly hugged him quickly as they made their way over to Harry and Trini. "Well, as good as you did this time, I think we'd all welcome you around any time we have some putties to take care of."

Harry gave another snort before responding. "I'll say. Though for the record, I totally had those two handled."

Trini elbowed him in the side playfully, making him recoil while laughing. "Seriously though, Tommy," Trini said. "I know you're good, but you must have really been on your game. You took out half of them yourself and you're the only one here without Powers."

Tommy shrugged, still seemingly unable to remove the smile from his face even as he brushed imaginary dust off his shoulders. "What can I say, I'm just that good."

The teens collective laugh was interrupted by a gruff voice with a bit of a buzzing tone to it. "But are you good enough to defeat me, human?"

Harry groaned even as he saw Kimberly and Tommy's eyes go wide when they looked over his shoulder. "I should have known," he grumbled as he and Trini turned. "No way is Zedd gonna send down putties for us to beat without a monster to accompany them."

"Right you are, Magi Ranger!" the monster responded, though how it did so was a mystery to Harry. What stood before them was clearly a humanoid insect, given that it's body was covered in what looked like a brown insectoid shell, its hands were similar in design to a preying mantis's, though with four tiny claws at the tip vaguely resembling fingers. Its head was dominated by a pair of long mandibles easily extending two feet from its face, but there weren't really any other easily discernable features to be seen there, eyes, mouth or otherwise.

"Oh man," Kimberly said, finally finding her voice. "Not another bug monster…"

"Tommy," Harry said after a moment. "You're good against putties, but I don't think you'd last long against monsters. Take it from someone who tried without a Ranger suit, you're better off calling for help. You still have your communicator?"

"Yeah," Tommy responded raising his wrist with the communicator on it as his former happiness gave away to resigned irritation. He knew Harry was right, he just didn't like it.

"Then take cover and contact Zordon to get the others. We'll probably need their help sooner rather than later."

Tommy nodded, already moving back, but never turning away from the monster. "Alright, you guys be careful."

"Always." Harry responded before flicking his wrist and catching his wand. "You two ready?"

"Ready!" Kimberly and Trini chanted, brandishing their morphers in hand even as Harry slipped into his dueling/morphing stance.

"Then let's do it. It's Morphin' Time!"

"PTERODACTYL!" "SABER-TOOTH TIGER!" "MAGI RANGER, POWER UP!"

In a flash of light, the Magi Ranger was standing before the insectoid monster, flanked by the Pink and Yellow Mighty Morphin Rangers.

The monster wasn't impressed.

"If you think that morphing makes you safe from the Stag Beetle, then you've got another thing coming!" the monster taunted, waving its clawed arms for emphasis. "Putties, attack!"

From behind the monster came another group of putties, five of them this time, that each leapt into the air over the monster, landed before it, and posed. The first to land quickly rose up onto one foot, and from their onto its toes, with its lifted leg bent and pulled up to its slightly hunched torso while both arms went straight out to each side. The next one landed a few feet to the left before turning and looking at them over its right shoulder with its right arm stretched out and up and both legs bent at the knee. The third landed in front of the fourth and basically just leaned to its right slightly extending one leg out to the side with one arm bent, its fist clenched by its head, and the other arm extended over its head. The fourth landed in front of the second and crouched down, bringing one fist around to the elbow of its other arm and resting the other fist below its chin. Finally, the fifth one landed front and center, crouching down on one knee and extending both arms at a downward angle on either side.

Harry blinked in confusion.

The putties sprang out of their poses and charged.

The first three split up, one for each Ranger, but the last two focused on Harry and Trini, leaving those two to fight two putties at once. Unlike the earlier putties, the two Harry was facing seemed more focused on dodging and blocking their blows instead of trying to actually hurt them. This, Harry found, was quite annoying when the two he was facing managed to avoid pretty much every strike he tried, sometimes even saving the other when he was about to strike their emblem.

Trini seemed to be having a similar experience if her grunts of frustration were anything to go by.

Finally, Harry had had enough and summoned the Magi Staff with a wave of his arm, manifesting his weapon and sweeping it low to the ground, easily knocking the putties feet out from under them and sending them to their backs. With a frustrated growl, Harry jabbed his staff at one while facing his open palm at the other. " _Reducto!_ " Harry cast, causing the spell to leap from the tip of his staff, as well as from the palm of his other hand, accompanied by sparks as his suit took the damage. The twin-cast spells slammed into their targets' chests, blowing the putties apart even before their own overload took effect and disintegrated the remaining pieces.

Then Harry heard Kimberly scream.

Spinning quickly, Harry found the Pink Ranger with her arms being held behind her back by the lone putty she'd faced. Before her stood the Stag Beetle monster, its mandibles clamped down over her helmeted head while its claws dug into her suit at the shoulders, holding her in place along with the putty behind her. From Kimberly's suit, lances of pink colored electricity were racing up toward her helmet where they arced off, landing between the monster's mandibles and spreading over the rest of it from there. There were no sparks flying, but based on how Kimberly's struggles were weakening, the monster had to be doing something to her.

"Back off, you big bug!" Harry shouted, leaping toward Kimberly in an attempt to rescue her, only for Tommy to once again beat him to the punch, landing his own flying kick before Harry arrived. The result of this was that Tommy's kick managed to distract the monster, breaking its hold on Kimberly and making it turn to face Tommy, only for Harry's staff to smash across its head, sending it spinning through the air accompanied by sparks before it simply vanished. At the same time, Kimberly was wrenched from the monster's grip, twisting and falling to the ground as the putty lost its grip as well.

In his anger at the assault on his girlfriend, Tommy leapt up and struck at the putty as well, striking the "Z" no less than six times before the construct finally exploded, its shattered remains disintegrating into thin air.

Trini joined them mere moments later, having dealt with her putties as quickly as she could upon hearing her friend's scream, but Kimberly's eyes were on Tommy as he knelt next to her.

"Are you alright, Kim?" Tommy asked calmly, the anger gone from his face.

Kimberly struggled to sit up for a moment before answering. "I… I think so… I'm just so weak…"

Then Harry's communicator went off. "Harry," Zordon's voice echoed. "You, Tommy, and the others must teleport to the Command Center at once."

Harry lifted his wrist and answered his mentor. "Right, on our way, Zordon."

Catching Trini's gaze, Harry nodded before turning to face the other two, Tommy still kneeling at Kimberly's side. "Come on, guys, Zordon needs to see us. He can probably tell us what that monster did to Kimberly."

"Really guys, I'm fine." Kimberly said, climbing unsteadily to her feet with Tommy's help where she managed a whole half-second before her legs gave out from under her. She was only saved from hitting the ground again by Tommy's presence.

"Yeah," Trini responded with concern audible in her voice even through the veil of playful sarcasm. "We can see that. Come on, let's go."

Without another word, Trini stepped up next to Kimberly while Harry did the same next to Tommy and triggered their teleporters, bringing the whole group back to the Command Center.

-MR-

When the four rematerialized, Kimberly nearly fell out of Tommy's grip, this time saved by Trini's presence on her other side. Alpha was at their side immediately, waving yet another in his long line of mysterious gizmos and gesturing for them to bring her to the cot once more laying amidst the ring of computers.

"Zordon," Tommy asked as soon as he saw Kimberly onto her cot. "What's wrong with Kim? What did that monster do to her?"

"And can it be undone?" Jason's voice came from one side of the room where he, Zack, and Billy had been standing unnoticed, having teleported in moments before Harry's group.

"Observe the Viewing Globe," Zordon commanded, prompting all those present to shift their focus, even Kimberly turning her head weakly.

On the globe, they saw Kimberly fighting her Z-Putty. Then, just as she was about to defeat it, the Stag Beetle stepped into view, knocked her to the ground, and then lifted her back up for the putty to restrain. Once it had done so, the monster clamped its mandibles around her head and the pink electricity Harry had noticed began forming. From there, it went on for a few seconds before Tommy appeared on screen, followed shortly by Harry.

"What did that thing do to her?" Trini asked this time.

Instead of answering immediately, Zordon turned his focus onto Alpha, who was still scanning Kimberly. "Alpha, what do the sensors indicate?"

"It is as you feared, Zordon." Alpha responded promptly. "A portion of Kimberly's internal Power has been drained away from her. That is why she is so weak, her body is still acclimating to the loss of Power."

"Loss of Power?" Jason nearly demanded. "Is she losing her Ranger Powers like Tommy did?"

Luckily, Zordon shook his head. "No, Jason. Tommy's loss of Power was connected to Rita tapping into and draining the very source of his Power. The Stag Beetle monster merely drained away a portion of the Power within Kimberly herself, not her Power Coin. She will recover in time, and should even be able to function normally within a matter of minutes once her body adjusts, but she will be slightly more vulnerable than before until her Power regenerates."

"But why would Zedd want to drain our Power if it isn't permanent?" Billy asked, confusion clear in his voice.

Zordon shook his head again. "I am not sure, Billy, but what I do know is this. We must be very careful while battling this monster. It is possible that, with the proper preparation, Kimberly's Power can be taken back to return her to full strength immediately when the monster next appears, but while it possesses even a fraction of her Power, the monster will be much stronger than it was before."

"We're not gonna see it sporting pink tights next time it shows up, right?" Zack quipped, earning a few forced smiles from the others.

Zordon seemed to roll his eyes, but the action was so minute Harry wasn't sure if he had really seen it. "No, Zackary, the monster will not be able to draw on Kimberly's Power as the Pink Ranger, but it can use her energy to enhance itself, much as extra Power enhances you all while in morph."

"That just means we have to take this guy down twice as hard when it shows up next." Jason half-shouted, doing his normal pump-up-the-others routine.

"But until the monster reappears, Rangers, all we can do is wait."

"And when it shows up again, we'll be ready." Kimberly said, weakly but determined as she lay on the cot and tried to regain her strength.

-MR-

AN: So, a bit talky, but I still kinda like it despite the weak-ish ending. Hope you all do too.

I really just liked the design and concept of the Stag Beetle when I watched its episode. Don't know why. So despite the fact that Tommy is already Powerless and the monster's whole reason for existence in canon was to drain Tommy's Power, I had to use it. So I worked it into my overarching Season 2 plotline. Kinda looking forward to seeing how close some of you can get to my plans. Some of you have had some very accurate guesses in the past, and I want to see if that can hold true now as more and more hints are revealed.

To cut off those of you who are more aware of Power Ranger Canon, yes, I am aware that Pursehead and Lipsyncher are from after White Light when Tommy returns as the White Ranger. I picked them because it fit in with the theme I had going, and no, Tommy is not yet the White Ranger.

Random thing I found odd. When I got to thinking about Trini's Volleyball club and then reviewed the episode in question, I realized that every member of that club were girls. Now I know that volleyball has a bit of a reputation as being a women's sport, but I personally enjoyed playing it during PE and, if I had been more socially and physically active back during high school, I can conceivably see myself joining such a club. As I am most certainly not female, I find this small point in Power Rangers rather sexist. That is all. : )

Kimberly's attempts at overcoming her apparent forgetfulness in this chapter were more than a bit of a dig at Tommy's apparent forgetfulness in canon. I am of the opinion that Tommy's apparent inability to remember the simplest of things not related to karate is of a similar nature to Bella's clumsiness from Twilight. Sorry to bring up Twilight here, but I have to make a point. You see, Tommy's forgetfulness and Bella's clumsiness only exist when it is essential for the writers of their respective stories to focus on them. Bella, on several instances in the books/movies (not that I've read more than fanfiction that BASH THE HECK OUT OF EDWARD! Though I have unfortunately seen all the movies but Eclipse) ran around and did other rather athletic things that her supposedly debilitating clumsiness would have turned into a face plant, occasionally resulting in unavoidable injury without sparklepires there to rescue her from her own epic fails. Similarly, Tommy is only forgetful when we're dealing with an episode that is at least partially Tommy-centric. And even then, once he returns to the team as the White Ranger and Jason, Zack, and Trini are being phased out so the focus is heavier on him, Billy, and Kimberly, he shows precisely no sign of his former forgetfulness. And yet I've heard tale that his "forgetfulness" returns in Dino Thunder. He's not forgetful, it's just a convenient plot device for the writers to dust off whenever they need him to be in some sort of difficulty for their attempts at plot. Just like Bella's clumsiness is used to force awkward moments through into pseudo romantic or OMG SAVE ME moments.

Unexpected Rant ™ over.

I'm not sure if the whole "Lucky Purse for my parents who are now divorced" was really something the writers considered when laying out that scene in the Two for One episode (Season 2 Episode 19). It really does call into question the luck value that that purse might have had though…

Also, the whole Venus Island episode is even more full of holes and stupidity than I remember. First off, Zedd giving Goldar instruction in a bottle… enough said. In canon, it wasn't Zedd's intention for Goldar to leave them behind as I wrote it, no, but it was something Zedd tried to capitalize on with the whole trap, though his intention was to ransom Hallie for Tommy. Venus Island is an island that Zedd can call into being whenever and the "trade winds blow towards it at Sundown." Not even making that up. The Rangers put a tracking device on a freaking balloon to find the island! GAH! Though the reason I didn't remember these details is because this is also the first episode where the loss of Jason, Zack, and Trini is felt as it's the one I mentioned in my Season 2 thoughts where Jason and Zack have lines where their Ranger suits are head bobbing like they're talking, but they aren't saying anything. That must have blocked out the other stupidity from my memory.

And just because Tommy isn't a Ranger anymore (at the moment) doesn't mean he can't still whoop putties. I figured that if Rocky, Adam, and Aisha can do it before getting Power, Tommy should sure as heck be able to do it!

And I introduced Richie in this chapter. Not quite sure if Imma use Curtis yet, but he might get a small appearance if I decide to use Trumpet Top, which kinda requires him to exist, even if I only montage it like I did those monsters at the beginning of this chapter.

And that's another thing! While most of Rita's monsters were stupid, they at least seemed more stupid because of alliteration than anything else. A lot of Zedd's monsters were named as if they designed them, and then showed them to a 6 year old and had them come up with a name. As 6 year olds aren't necessarily known for deep, creative thinking along these lines, they would probably have just described them as best they could, perhaps making the names an almost insult that only a younger child would come up with. Thus we have Trumpet Top, Magnet Brain, PipeBrain, PurseHead, Four Head, Flame Head, Cannontop, Tube Monster, Turkey Jerk, Pachinko Head, Etc.

Also, I do believe this is the first chapter where Harry led a morph. Huh…

Thanks for reading and don't forget to review,

Tenstar12


	48. Chapter 48

Magi Ranger

By: Tenstar12

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or Power Rangers.

 **Chapter 48, or Fear the Bug!**

As Zordon predicted, Kimberly was able to stand without aid and seemed more or less back to normal after around ten minutes. After that, the Rangers, and Tommy, merely did what they could to pass the time, knowing that the Stag Beetle would make another appearance sooner rather than later.

This led to Tommy, Jason, and Zack basically hanging out like they would in the Youth Center. Talking about whatever came to mind while they lounged as best they could by leaning against the computer consoles. Kimberly seemed content to sit nearby on the cot and listen, occasionally adding in her own comments while Billy spent his time working with Alpha on one of the computers.

Maybe they should keep some board games in the Command Center or something…

Harry, after listening to the other Rangers' conversation for a few minutes, had moved to his room with Trini following. Making sure to once more disillusion his own cot before Trini could spot it and leaving the door open to better hear the others, Harry settled down at his desk to disenchant a few more galleons while his girlfriend settled in on another chair he conjured for her to watch.

While the destabilization of his control had initially prevented him from working on this particular project, his reluctant return to control exercises had since brought Harry to a point where he could work on the coins again. Admittedly, being unable to use Grid powered Wizarding spells to basically force his way through some of the protective enchantments on the Galleons made the process take much longer than it once had, he was still able to get one or two done an hour. It wasn't even half his previous speed, but the entire thing was a work in progress, and each time he got another one done, he was that much closer to his current personal goal of moving out of what basically amounted to a large walk-in-closet in the Command Center.

And the irony of that coupled with his living conditions back with the Dursleys was not lost on him.

He was still trying to figure out how he was basically going to launder all of the gold without raising any red flags with the law, but disenchanting more gold in the meantime would only help him in the end.

He finished his first coin of this session after about 30 minutes while Trini watched and occasionally asked questions. The process couldn't be too terribly interesting for her as most of the work was on a purely magical level, showing no outward changes in the coin aside from the occasional spark of magic from his wand and flash of light from the coin as another layer of protection was stripped away, but her presence did make the time pass a bit faster during what was otherwise a tedious process.

Besides, who was he to complain if his girlfriend wanted to spend more time around him while he was doing his own thing?

About ten minutes into working on his second coin, Trini spoke to him again. "Look at that, Harry."

Blinking a few times to refocus his vision after staring intently at runes only he could see courtesy of his magic, Harry turned and followed Trini's gesture out the door to the Command Center proper. There he saw Kimberly, standing again, and basically cuddled into Tommy's side as she laughed along with the others at something Zack had said. It was a fairly familiar scene to be honest, though not one he had seen very recently.

"And you were worried that there was something wrong with them." Trini admonished with a chuckle and a playful shove to his shoulder. "They seem just fine to me."

Harry blinked a few more times as he processed Trini's words before his brow furrowed in thought. She had a point, those two really were acting just like they had before all this strange forgetfulness had stricken the core Rangers. But what had changed to do that? Harry couldn't see Zordon from his position, but he could bet that the old Wizard had spotted the same thing. He'd have to make sure to bring it up with him later on.

Before he could comment aloud on the topic, though that would probably only result in more admonishment from Trini if past trends were anything to go by, the Command Center's alarm went off. Harry shared a quick look with his girlfriend before the two sprang up and made their way back out of the smaller room to join the other Rangers and Tommy amidst the computer consoles facing Zordon.

"Rangers," Zordon said once everyone had gathered. "The Stag Beetle monster has reappeared in the industrial area of Angel Grove. It is making its way toward a power plant there."

Billy flinched as his eyes widened dramatically. "If its Power draining abilities can be applied to the generators there, it could gain immense strength, not to mention the damage it would to do the city's power grid."

Jason clenched his fists and nearly growled as he spoke. "We've gotta stop that thing guys."

"Right!" The others chanted while Harry's attention drifted to a morose looking Tommy.

Almost as if he could sense Harry's thoughts, Zordon addressed the former Green Ranger next. "Tommy, with your involvement in the monster's first appearance, I feel it best if you stay in the Command Center for the time being. At least until the other Rangers manage to defeat the Stag Beetle. For your own safety as well as that of others around you if the monster decides to come after you personally."

Tommy nodded solemnly, looking resigned. "Alright, Zordon, if you think that's best. I know I definitely won't be of much help against this bug in a straight fight as I am now."

Zordon nodded before shifting his focus back to the rest of them. "Go now Rangers, and may the Power protect you."

"Alright, guys," Jason shouted, stepping up as normal. "It's Morphin' Time!"

"MASTODON!" "PTERODACTYL!" "TRICERATOPS!" "SABER-TOOTH TIGER!" "TYRANNOSAURUS!" "MAGI RANGER, POWER UP!"

-MR-

Appearing in the Industrial area of Angel Grove was a bit of a shocker for Harry. He'd never actually been here before, mostly seeing it from a distance during other monster battles, but it almost seemed a world away from the rest of the city. The large smokestacks from the nearby factories and the like almost gave the area a grey haze as the exhaust blocked out part of the sunlight. It was really rather unsettling.

What was even more unsettling was the Stag Beetle nearly skipping its way towards them down an otherwise empty street. "Oh, look! It's the Power Rangers again! And the Pink Ranger! Are you here to give me another snack?"

Kimberly recoiled slightly at the monster before shouting back. "You caught me off guard last time, bug brain, that won't happen again!"

"We'll see, Ranger, we'll see…"

"Harry, Trini, Kim," Jason said, almost out of the blue. "You guys faced this monster before, any tips?"

Harry felt this was a rather bad time to be asking this, seeing as the monster was standing a mere twenty feet away, but responded anyway. "We really didn't actually fight this guy much to be honest. It kept us distracted with putties while he went for Kimberly."

Trini merely nodded while Kimberly shuddered slightly at the memory. "Yeah, definitely don't let it grab you."

"Probably a good idea," Zack responded with a chuckle as the Stag Beetle broke into a sudden charge. "Look out!"

Almost as one, the Rangers split up. Jason and Zack leapt into the air and flipped over the monster while Billy and Harry dove and rolled to the left and the girls did the same to the right, easily avoiding the monster's charge. It was the follow-up wave of putties that caught them off guard.

Rising from his dive, Harry found himself bowled over by a charging Z-putty. Using the momentum, Harry rolled backwards and back onto his feet, rising unsteadily just in time to deflect a punch from that same putty.

"Stick together!" Jason shouted while fighting his own putty patroller. "Don't let them get you alone for the Stag Beetle to drain!"

Sound advice, Harry thought with a roll of his eyes. Deciding getting knocked down once was enough for him, Harry summoned up his staff with a flourish, using his spinning weapon to deflect another punch from his opponent, spinning the golem around before he delivered a solid kick to its back and sent it sprawling.

It didn't immediately disintegrate, but Harry still took the time to check on Billy, who he assumed was his partner for their whole "stick together" plan. The Blue Ranger was faring admirably against his putty opponent. They were apparently using the same avoidance strategy as the earlier batch of putties had, delaying the Rangers as opposed to trying to do them harm. It only stood to reason that the Stag Beetle was going to try and sneak up on one of them to try and drain them as it had Kimberly.

So where was the Stag Beetle?

Harry's question was answered when he felt an abnormally strong grip clamp down on his arms from behind. Looking to either side, Harry saw the red tipped claws from the Stag Beetle holding him in place just before he felt its mandibles snap into place around his helmet. "Ah crap…"

"Got you now, Magi Ranger!" The monster taunted.

"Harry!" Trini's cry was really the first thing to alert the other Rangers to Harry's predicament. Just at the edge of his helmeted vision, Harry could see Billy redouble his efforts to get past his two putty opponents, Harry's having apparently switched targets to allow the Stag Beetle time to do its thing.

Of the others, he could see Kimberly and Trini who had been taken off guard by her putty in her distraction and was now fighting off the back foot. Kimberly appeared to be doing alright, but she had a few scorch marks on her suit, showing that her own slightly lower Power supply was costing her. As for Jason and Zack, Harry could hear the two fighting, but they were out of sight.

"Now, let's see what kind of Power you have, Magi Ranger!"

Deep within himself, near his Power core, Harry felt an intrusion as the monster basically started sucking at his Power. Teasing a strand of Power up, the monster then latched onto it and pulled, leading to arcs of purple lightning streaking up his suit and through the monster's mandibles, much like it had with Kimberly's pink.

The difference here was that Harry had a closer connection to his internal Power than Kimberly did, so he wasn't quite as helpless. First things first, Harry's mental hands grabbed the same strand the Beetle had been pulling on and pulled back, effectively halting the drain on his personal energies before it began in earnest. Then, he called up and released a burst of kinetic energy, essentially driving a telekinetic fist into the Stag Beetle's stomach. The hit was rather effective, if only because it was unexpected, as Harry felt the monster's grip shift as it nearly doubled over from the blow. What the attack had accomplished though, was to break the monster's concentration, letting Harry call up his Wizarding magic and twist in place ever so slightly.

The resulting crack was ear splitting in volume as Harry side-along apparated away from the Stag Beetle, taking its clamped on hands and half of its mantis-like claws with him.

The monster's scream of agony brought a stop to the other battles where the crack of apparition had not. The unexpected cry caused the Z-putties to actually disengage from their opponents, although Jason still managed to destroy his in its distraction, and regroup around the inured Stag Beetle while the Rangers regrouped around Harry.

"Woah…" Zack commented on seeing the maimed monster while Harry almost casually removed the severed limbs from himself. "Nice trick, Harry."

"Good job, Harry." Jason complimented in his usual half-yell before completely disregarding it as he rushed on ahead. "Now we just have to finish this thing off!"

The five remaining putties were bobbing and weaving around the injured monster in a mockery of a defensive formation while the monster itself was loudly bemoaning the loss of its limbs. "I'll make you pay for that, Magi Ranger!"

"And how are you gonna do that?" Jason shouted back. "Just face it, bug, your time is up!"

"Oh, is that so?" The monster spoke in a smug tone before its upper body shot forward quickly, clamping its mandibles around the head of one of the putties.

For a moment, the construct froze, then when grayish bolts of energy began draining from it into the Stag Beetle, it began thrashing and flailing wildly. After several seconds wherein the putty was unable to break free and the Rangers watched in stunned silence, the putty finally crumbled into dust as the monster drained away the last of the Power animating it.

Laughing smugly, the monster held up its arms, where the freshly drained Power visibly gathered before, in a sudden burst, a new pair of clawed hands grew, these ones clearly differentiated from the rest of its body by being the uniform grey color of the putty patrollers.

The remaining four putties seemed especially unnerved by the monster's laugh as they all moved further away from the monster, out of its easy reach.

"If you think something like that is going to keep me down, then you've got another thing coming, Rangers!" The monster taunted.

"I have to say," Harry quipped grasping his staff tightly as he took his fighting stance again. "I wasn't expecting that."

"I know," Kimberly responded. "I mean, I know they're just putties, but that was harsh."

"It just means that we can't hold back on this one." Jason responded, not taking his eyes off of the still gloating monster. "Harry, can you hold off the putties while we focus on the Stag Beetle? We have to beat it before Zedd can grow it. It could do a massive amount of damage if it gets big here."

Harry nodded, calling up his magic as he did. "I've got just the spell in mind, Jason. Ready when you are."

With a nod in return, Jason led the other Rangers in a charge, each of them summoning up their weapons as they went. The stag beetle met their charges with its own claws, blocking Jason's first strike from his sword and following up with a slash from its other arm that sent the Ranger spinning.

When the putties tried to move in from either side, Harry released his gathered magic, causing arms transfigured from the blacktop beneath their feet to spring up and grab each of the putties' legs, anchoring them in place and keeping them out of the fight. Seeing no reason not to, Harry then created another four arms, these ones much longer and with the sole purpose of punching the emblem on the putties' chests, causing their destruction.

Meanwhile, the other Rangers had been repelled by the Stag Beetle monster similarly to Jason. They were not to be denied, however, as each time the Rangers were knocked down, they just sprang back up again and rejoined the battle.

Kimberly was doing the worst. This made sense as her Power had already been weakened by the Stag Beetle earlier and her weapon was more long-range oriented, but beyond that, the monster was almost dismissive of her presence. A few times, it took snaps at Jason or Zack with its mandibles, trying to catch one of them in its Power draining grip, but despite having similar opportunities with the Pink Ranger, no attempt was made.

This was somewhat confusing, though could perhaps be explained by the Pink Ranger's already drained state. It was possible that, while it may be easier to catch the Pink Ranger, the monster chose not to since she simply didn't have as much Power left to drain as the others did. Going for a "juicier" target as opposed to an easier one.

This also wasn't really important at the moment as Harry began drawing up his Power again, focusing it into his staff even as he sent a mental call to Hedwig, causing his mechanical familiar to appear atop the Magi Staff and take in the gathered Power.

"Alright, Hedwig," Harry said, drawing his staff back as Hedwig's body took on a purple aura. "Let's squash this bug."

- _Ready, Harry/Wizard._ -

"Guys!" Harry shouted. "Incoming!" With that, Harry thrust his staff forward, launching Hedwig like an overcharged, feathery, ballistic missile toward the Stag Beatle. At Harry's shout, the Rangers and the Monster had all turned their attention toward him. The Rangers, seeing what he was doing, had leapt back and out of the way, while the monster just stood there in confusion.

That all changed, however, when Hedwig came flying at it. The monster shifted its stance and actually caught Hedwig mere inches from impact. To make matters worse, it caught her between its Power draining mandibles.

"Ah hah!" The monster cheered. "Thanks for the snack, Magi Ranger!"

"Hedwig!" Harry's cry of distress was echoed in his familiar as she flapped her wings uselessly, arcs of purple energy draining from her and into the monster.

With Hedwig held so close to the monster, there wasn't much Harry and the others could do to attack it. To make matters worse, every second they delayed, the monster grew stronger as it drained the Power of what was supposed to be Harry's finishing move out of his familiar. Even worse still, after that, it would probably start on Hedwig's own internal Power, which was effectively her life force in her mini-Zord body.

Luckily, Hedwig took any further decisions out of the Rangers' hands.

- _You want my Power bug-thing?-_ Hedwig's strained voice echoed in Harry's head as her flailing stopped. – _Then TAKE IT!_ -

With a fierce cry, Hedwig unleashed what was left of Harry's Power within her, as well as a portion of her own Power in a focused blast from the Resurrection Stone atop her head. The blast of Power hit the Stag Beetle right between its mandibles, in what was questionably its face, and caused it to release Hedwig and stagger backwards, crying out in pain and surprise as it was engulfed in a small explosion and a resulting cloud of smoke.

When the smoke cleared, the Stag Beetle was treated to the sight of the core Rangers throwing their weapons skyward while Harry held an exhausted Hedwig off to the side.

"POWER AXE!" "POWER BOW!" "POWER DAGGERS!" "POWER LANCE!" "POWER SWORD!"

"POWER BLASTER!" The Rangers chanted as the Stag Beetle, its head quite badly scorched from Hedwig's attack, merely staggered backwards in surprise. "FIRE!" As expected, the beam of destructive energy lanced from the Power Blaster and destroyed the Stag Beetle in a massive and overly dramatic explosion leaving the battle won yet again, though this time with Harry feeling rather annoyed with himself.

-MR-

Back at the Command Center, post debriefing, Zordon was congratulating the Rangers while Tommy stood off to one side with Alpha. "Well done, Power Rangers. You have once more defeated one of Zedd's evil creations and defended Angel Grove. You should be proud of what you have accomplished and continue to accomplish."

Jason probably would've been preening after Zordon's words if he hadn't been shooting Harry not-so-secret glares. Apparently, it was time for him to say his piece. "It would have been even easier if Harry was more careful. He put not only the team, but his own familiar in danger when he fired off his finisher. We had the monster handled, but he tried to take the win for himself."

Harry just blinked. He was standing off to one side, the still weakened Hedwig perched on his forearm in her natural looking form while he stroked her feathers with his free hand. "Excuse me?" Harry said after finally finding his voice.

"You heard what I said, Harry." Jason replied. "You put all of us in danger just do you could showboat. So you could feel important. So you could try and make yourself more important to the team."

Harry blinked again. It seemed as though Jason's animosity toward him was not only back, but out in the open again, not to mention seemingly more intense than before.

Well, he wasn't just going to take that lying down, now was he?

"Now hold on just a minute here," Harry started, meeting Jason's narrow-eyed gaze with his own. "I know that I messed up, but how could I have possibly known that the monster would even be able to catch Hedwig like that? As far as you guys having the monster handled, yes you had it contained, but you yourself said that we needed to defeat it before Zedd could grow it, so I was trying to expedite that."

Harry forced his anger back behind a wall of Occlumency and took a deep breath before letting it out slowly. "Look, my idea may not have been the best one in the end, but I wasn't trying to 'steal the glory.' I would hope that by now, Jason, you'd know that I'm not that kind of person."

The other Rangers looked rather uncomfortable, but Jason just soldiered on. "Oh really? I doubt I'm the only one who noticed that you weren't really vital to our last few fights, Harry. We beat Zedd's last three attacks without you really even touching the monsters. While I won't deny that you were necessary when it came to escaping Venus Island, that's about it."

Harry nodded, trying to keep his voice calm as he spoke. "You have a point Jason. You all haven't really needed me there these last few battles. But the fact remains that I was there and I'm only trying to help."

Zordon cut in before Jason could level further accusations. "And that, Red Ranger, is all that need be said on the subject." The floating head actually sounded more stern that Harry had ever heard him before, but the hard look in his eyes quickly softened. "Harry has admitted to making a mistake, perhaps he didn't think out his plan as much as he should have, but I sincerely doubt he will do such a thing again. As for your other accusation, I feel that your frustration over the near disaster might be speaking for you. You have had an eventful day, Rangers, perhaps you should go home and get some rest."

Jason looked about to argue before taking a calming breath of his own. "You're right, Zordon. Maybe I do need to cool off some." And without another word, Jason triggered his communicator and teleported out of the Command Center in a column of Red.

The other core Rangers shuffled uncomfortably for several moments before Kimberly stepped over to speak with Tommy in a quiet voice. The former Ranger looked slightly surprised at first, but quickly smiled and nodded before the two shared a quick kiss and Kimberly teleported away herself.

Similarly, Trini made her way over to Harry. "You know that Jason doesn't mean any of those things he's saying, right?"

Harry sighed as he wrapped Trini in his arms. "I want to believe that, Trini. I really do. But you know this isn't the first time he's done this kind of thing. After a while, it doesn't matter nearly as much whether he really means it or if he's just lashing out."

Trini gave a sigh of her own, reluctantly nodding at her boyfriend's response to her attempt to protect her longtime friend. After several more seconds, Trini broke their hug and offered him a smile. "Well, I'm gonna head back to the Youth Center for a few hours, maybe grab a bite to eat. You wanna join me?"

Harry returned her smile. The thought of a relaxing dinner with his girlfriend, assuming that Bulk and Skull didn't butt in as they tended to do around the Youth Center, was an appealing one. Unfortunately he had something to take care of first.

Kissing her on the cheek, Harry responded. "I'll meet you there in a bit. I want to talk to Zordon for a bit first. Save me a seat?"

Trini stuck her tongue out teasingly at him. "Don't keep me waiting." Then she was gone in a column of yellow.

Shortly afterwards, Zack and Billy gave their own goodbyes and teleported away, leaving Harry, Tommy, Alpha, and Zordon as the sole occupants of the Command Center.

"So," Harry said as he and Tommy met amidst the computers. "What put that goofy smile on your face?"

Tommy snorted a laugh. "Probably the same thing that put the smile on yours. Kim reminded me about our date later tonight. Said she was gonna go home to get changed and meet me in town."

Harry nodded. "You have guessed correctly, my friend. Trini set up a little dinner date for us later on too. I'm heading out to meet her after I talk to Zordon."

"Which brings us nicely to our present situation, Harry." Zordon said, bringing Tommy and Harry's attention to him. "I took the liberty of giving Tommy more information on our investigations, Harry. He is now fully caught up with what we know of what is wrong with the other Rangers."

Harry nodded. "That's good, maybe he'll see something that we won't."

"That is precisely my thought, Harry. Unfortunately, there is another symptom that we might have overlooked."

Harry quirked an eyebrow. "Oh? What's that, Zordon?"

Zordon looked rather solemn as he spoke. "I believe that whatever has caused this change in the Rangers may also be elevating Jason's emotional responses. While I know that the two of you have never had a close friendship and he can sometimes be… confrontational towards you." Harry snorted briefly, but Zordon continued speaking. "But I think we can all agree that Jason's attitude after this latest battle was quite beyond the pale."

Harry thought for a moment before nodding. "You do have a point, Zordon. He's never liked me, but he's never tried to accuse me of putting others at risk just to make myself look better. That's a bit of a big leap of logic there."

Tommy nodded as well. "Yeah, and he was doing better for a while. You two at least seemed to get along fairly well up until Zedd showed up."

"Which ties in with one of the working theories we have about Zedd being responsible for the entire situation. However, today's events may have sparked a new, potentially even more distressing theory…" Zordon trailed off, his eyes distant as he pondered whatever was on his mind.

After nearly a full minute, during which Harry exchanged looks with both Tommy and Alpha, he finally spoke up. "Any chance you'd be willing to share, Zordon?"

This seemed to snap him out of his trance as Zordon blinked several times before shaking his head slightly. "I'm sorry, Harry, but I don't feel comfortable sharing this theory just yet. If this is true, or even possible… well, it may be quite disastrous if we cannot work out a counter for it. I'm afraid I cannot say any more until I have more information."

There were several more moments of silence after that. It was clear that Zordon intended to keep his theory entirely to himself for the time being, but Harry then had another thought. "I actually do have a question about the Stag Beetle monster, Zordon."

Zordon seemed to snap out of his thoughts with a small start before focusing on his apprentice. "What is it, Harry?"

"Well," Harry started. "When it drained that Putty to heal itself. Why did it have to? I mean, it only took it a few seconds to drain the Putty, and it had ahold of Kimberly for longer than that, so I'd imagine that it would've gotten more Power from her. So why didn't it just use her Power to regenerate some pink claws or whatever? I know that her stolen Power wouldn't have faded on its own, and we didn't get any reports of the monster using it to attack somewhere else, so…"

Zordon paused for a moment before responding. "That… is an interesting point, Harry… And one that may present an even more dire explanation… I will think on this, Harry. Thank you for bringing it to my attention."

And that was about it. After that point, the conversation broke apart and Harry and Tommy both went their separate ways to meet their respective girlfriends.

-MR-

A few days later, the Angel Grove Sweepers faced off against the (arguably) undefeated Stone Canyon Beetles in the (maybe) noble sport of Broom Ball. The crowd was unexpectedly large, all things considered, as teens and parents came from all over the area to watch the home team face off against the arrogant challengers.

Bulk and Skull had showed up as well, though that wasn't as much of a surprise, and they had some kind of giant, pig-like nose attached to a machine that they were using to, apparently, get a sample of everyone's unique scent so they could try and match those to the Power Rangers. Because obviously they'd be able to do the same to the Rangers. Never mind that they only really showed up when there was a monster to fight, which usually meant explosions and danger everywhere.

A very well thought out plan, and a pair of certifiable geniuses that Farkas Bulkmeier and Eugene Skullovitch.

Random stupidity from school bullies with delusions of fame and fortune aside, Harry found himself getting drawn into the same fervor as the rest of the crowd while the Beetles and Sweepers faced off. Ernie had decided that, as the assistant coach, Harry should be down on the sidelines with Ernie himself and so Richie was left behind the snack bar. The fact that that meant the only partially trained teen had to scramble to keep things running properly and thus was in a worse condition than Harry had been in during the practice sessions for this match brought a certain amount of vindictive pleasure to him.

Hey, they guy was trying to steal his girlfriend, so he was allowed to take pleasure in his suffering from time to time.

In any case, the game was actually surprisingly even. It seemed that the natural skill and prowess of the Sweepers, not all brought about by their Rangers Powers as evidenced by Tommy's own stellar performance as their lead scorer, was matched by the Beetles experience at the game. They may have gotten that experience beating underprepared teams, but they had it all the same.

The Sweepers had started off rather poorly, this being their first actual game so they had to adjust to having actual opposition instead of their practice sessions. The Beetles had pulled off to an early 5 to 2 lead. Then, once they got into form, the Sweepers managed to catch up, even overcoming an unexpected rally by the Beetles to bring the game to a tie at 8 to 8 with only 6 seconds left on the clock.

Ernie called a time out and waved the active part of his team over to the bench where the slightly overweight man finally sat down, panting a bit from his excited cheering. As they were limited by the size of the play area, the teams had agreed to only 4 players on the field at any given time: a goalie and three others. Each of the Sweepers had fallen into specific roles, with Billy being their goalie and the others rotating through the other spots as Ernie thought up new plays and the like.

Most of the time, Kimberly and Trini, being arguably more nimble than the others, were put in where speed was required. Jason ended up playing more defensively, surprisingly enough, using his karate trained reflexes to help Billy keep the goal protected, and his strength to help ensure the ball reached whoever he was passing it to. This was easier said than done as the brooms tended to not hit the balls too solidly, ending up with more of a bouncing roll than anything else, so the extra strong hits helped. Zack was basically there to throw the other team off. He had a habit of throwing random dance moves into his movement, which, while not necessarily unexpected to those who knew him, certainly did serve to throw off his opponent's predictions as to where he would go.

The real surprise was Tommy. The former Ranger was everywhere! And he was performing at a level that Harry actually found somewhat surprising. He knew that the teen was in shape, but he almost felt there was something else going on with how well Tommy was doing overall…

"Alright guys," Ernie said once everyone had gathered and he had recovered, his face flushed from the fun he was having. "We've almost got this in the bag. Here's what I want to do. Kimberly, you're fastest on the swing, so I want you in the face off. Get the ball to Jason, who'll set up Tommy for a power shot. We've gotta move fast with only 6 seconds left, but I know you guys can do it!"

With nods given all around while Harry just smiled in support (this was all Ernie's show, he was really just there for the better seat), the three named teens jogged with Billy to their starting positions for what would probably be the final face off of the match.

It went much as could be expected.

Kimberly moved exceptionally fast on this one, Harry more than suspecting that her excitement had caused her Power to rise within her, much like it had to Jason when he was sparring with Tommy before the Elder battle. In any case, she swiped the ball to Jason who caught it on his broom, glanced at Tommy's position, and hit the ball so it would make its bouncy way between one of the Beetle's player's feet and then pass a few feet in front of Tommy's current position.

Seeing where the ball was going, Tommy tucked his broom handle under his right arm, gripping it tightly in his hand, and dove. He planted his left hand on the ground before swinging the broom from underneath the ball on a bounce. The resulting hit gave the ball enough lift that it actually caught the top corner of the net, flying close enough to the Beetle goalie's face that he flinched away, too surprised to put much effort into stopping the shot. Meanwhile, Tommy completed his one-handed handspring, flipping back to his feet with a kiai that was quickly followed by the buzzer as the game ended with the Sweepers up by 1.

Harry just blinked. Alright, he knew that Tommy was doing exceptionally good, but that was a bit over the top, right?

Nobody else seemed to think so as Ernie, Zack, and Trini rushed the field as soon as the buzzer went off, swarming Tommy with the rest of the team as they celebrated their underdog victory.

Harry just hung back, not really wanting to get into the middle of the crowd of overly excited people, some of the fans having joined the mob too as everyone high-fived and congratulated each other. If he had been more involved in the practice sessions, he might have joined them, but as it was, he really wasn't a part of things enough to feel comfortable.

The Magi Ranger was, however, more than a little satisfied to see the Beetles slinking off through the crowd, most likely attempting to reach the locker rooms before anyone noticed. The captain of the team, the same boy who had issued the challenge to Ernie and who Harry had called out, glanced back over his shoulder and caught Harry's eye. The Magi Ranger just gave him a smile and an exaggerated wave, prompting the teen's face to flush in fury before he wheeled around again and stomped out.

Harry chuckled to himself before something else caught his eye. Bulk and Skull had been making the circuit of the room with the mechanical nose thing, but they had stopped short and were edging around a group of five teens that were standing near the entrance to the Youth Center, not taking their eyes off of them. Harry couldn't get a good look at them from where he was, but they didn't really look like the friendliest lot based on how they were glaring at the two bumbling bullies.

As he looked on, Bulk and Skull, apparently trying to reach the exit that the teens were standing by, had nearly reached their goal when one of five, wearing black pants and a red tank top, feinted towards the two, one hand drawn back as if to punch them. Bulk and Skull quickly broke and ran, dropping their device and scrambling over each other in an attempt to get away. Harry just narrowed his eyes as the five teens started high-fiving each other and laughing before they moved over to the snack bar.

Well, that certainly wasn't something you saw every day. While Bulk and Skull had been cowed on more than one occasion after their interactions with the Rangers, he had never seen them so weary of anyone without some kind of confrontation first. They usually managed to bluster their way into a precarious position before they cut and ran like that, typically after something had randomly been spilled on them.

Odd…

In any case, now wasn't the time for pondering the insanity that was Bulk and Skull. And this was made even clearer to him when Trini extracted herself from the crowd, rolled her eyes at him, and grabbed his arm, dragging Harry with her right back into the middle of the group where Ernie, Tommy, and the other Rangers were still celebrating.

Well, just because he hadn't been involved with the team directly until today didn't mean he couldn't still enjoy the celebration, right? Especially when Trini was so insistent, and who was he to deny her?

-MR-

AN: Chapter title brought to you courtesy of me watching Kung Fu Panda 2 before working on this chapter. FEAR THE BUG! Lol

I can just imagine board games in the Command Center. They do spend an inordinate amount of time waiting around there after all. I can see the Rangers sitting around a Monopoly board when the alarm goes off. "Rangers, the monster has returned to Angel Grove!" "In a minute, Zordon, it's my turn." Even better if they were in morph at the time with their helmets off. lol

Ok, so I'll admit that when I was describing the industrial area of Angel Grove, I was really thinking of the episode in Season 1 where Jason and Tommy get the little Blade Blaster slingshot enhancer thingies from Titanus to beat Rita's first batch of Super Putties. The area where the Rangers fight the Super Putties, though it looks a bit more like a junkyard in my memory, was just really grey when compared to the other fight scenes I remember. It sticks out to me, so I decided to use it.

That little broomball bit grew out of proportion too. Hope it wasn't too boring as I was basically just stream of consciousness-ing the entire thing and then cleaning it up afterwards…

Ending was… kinda weak in my mind, but it is what it is. Life conspired to keep me from finishing it in one session and the ending was fighting me when I tried to sit back down and work it out.

Another thought for you all. Don't be afraid to ask questions in your reviews. I can't guarantee that I'll answer everything, but as those who have reviewed could tell you, any time there is a question, I ALWAYS message back, even if it's just to say that I don't want to reveal that particular bit of info just yet.

Similarly on the overarching bits I've got going now. I wanna hear some theories, people! lol

Thanks for reading and don't forget to review,

Tenstar12


	49. Chapter 49

Magi Ranger

By: Tenstar12

AN: Funny story, got to feeling creative about two weeks ago. Thought I might end up working on this chapter more and finishing it early for the first time since I got my current job. Nope, ended up painting a bunch of my Warhammer miniatures that I've left unfinished for nearly a year. On the bright side though, my first squad of Dire Avengers is looking quite nice by my more-or-less amateur standards and the second is about halfway done. : )

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or Power Rangers.

 **Chapter 49, or The Trials and Tribulations of a Dancer in Love… Who is Also a Power Ranger…**

Two days after the anticlimactic defeat of the Stone Canyon Beetles in the (not really) noble sport of broom ball, Harry found himself once more behind the snack bar counter in the Youth Center. It had been a fairly standard Friday, all things considered. School had let out about thirty minutes ago and the after-school crowd was starting to trickle in. As it was a Friday, the crowd would end up a bit bigger than otherwise as students celebrated the coming weekend, but Harry doubted it would be too much trouble.

Most of this was because Richie hadn't been scheduled to work that day, and so wouldn't be around to cause problems. This tactic had started the day before, after Ernie left Harry to coach Richie on how to improve his methods when dealing with a large crowd. By the time Ernie had come down from his excitement over preserving the honor of his Youth Center, Richie had been practically buried under orders with no end in sight. The good natured man had signaled Harry and the two dove in to help the new guy, managing to get things back under control and keep the customers from getting angry.

This apparently annoyed Richie something awful as when Harry had tried to teach him more efficient ways and little tips and tricks for managing the snack bar solo, the teen had snapped at him and told him off. He had then proceeded to do various small things to try and get Harry into trouble. It started with him adjusting the heat on the flat top when Harry wasn't looking, causing the food atop it to be over or undercooked. Then he made similar changes to other devices behind the counter Harry worked with. Unplugging mixers or turning their dials up so they jumped into high gear when first turned on. Changing the temperature settings on the small popcorn machine Ernie had so that the corn wouldn't pop fast enough for customer demand. He even went so far as to poke holes in the bottoms of a few cups and loosen the lids on the salt and pepper shaker that Harry kept by the grill.

It was these last two that really tipped Ernie off that something was going wrong. Harry, of course, knew it was Richie from the start, if only because it was only the three of them behind the counter and Ernie wouldn't do that kind of thing. In any case, Ernie was more watchful by the time Richie had resorted to the prank that caused an entire batch of hamburgers to be ruined by an excessive amount of salt spilled onto them, meaning that Richie had to lay off.

After the disrupting teen had left, Harry explained to Ernie what had happened and the man confided in him that Richie had tried to blame each mistake/prank on Harry himself and promised to be on the lookout. If Richie was going to sabotage his coworkers like that, then there was no place for him on Ernie's payroll! Trick was, they had to catch him in the act or else he couldn't really fire him in good conscience. Internally cursing Ernie's overly trusting nature, Harry still nodded in agreement and tried to think of a way to help catch Richie in the act and finally get rid of the thorn in his side that he had become.

If Harry was lucky, then Ernie might even ban him from the Youth Center for a while. At least then he wouldn't be able to bug Trini whenever she was waiting for Harry's shift to end.

In any case, the day had been fairly standard so far. The sole real difference was that Bulk and Skull weren't currently causing any trouble. In fact, it seemed like they were being even more cautious than normal. The only interaction that Harry had had with them thus far that day was when they first came into the Youth Center and asked Ernie if he had seen their scent analyzing device that they had left behind the day of the broom ball game. When the man had told them no, they had slouched a bit and made their way to a table where they began speaking in whispers.

With Bulk and Skull apparently off their troublemaking game, the day was looking to be a rather fine one indeed. It wouldn't be too much longer until the other Rangers and Tommy arrived to begin their after school activities and classes for the Youth Center patrons. A few hours after that and Harry would be off work at which point he would probably spend his time hanging with the others while carefully avoiding Jason as much as possible to avoid setting off the Red Ranger and creating an awkward atmosphere for their mutual friends.

If he was really lucky, he and Trini might spend some time together, probably in the park as there wasn't much else to do in Angel Grove either teen was aware of and interested in, which would be a nice ending to an otherwise pleasantly uneventful day.

When fighting an unpredictable master of evil, one found it was the simple things that sometimes brought the most joy.

It was while sporting a detached sort of smile as he pondered this potential end to the day that Harry noticed Zack come in to the Youth Center. The teen looked rather less happy than usual, not having his usual bounce in his step and sporting a rather grim look on his face. This oddity snapped Harry out his fantasy of a peaceful end to a normal day as Zack caught sight of him, seemed to hesitate a moment, then firmed up his resolve as he stood straighter and walked up to the snack bar counter.

"Harry," Zack said with a nod while the Magi Ranger delivered a tray of food to the only other person currently standing at the counter. Convenient timing since it appeared that Zack had something on his mind if his still grim countenance was anything to go by.

"Zack," Harry returned the nod as he made quick work of cleaning off the flat top grill before turning to face his fellow Ranger. "What's up?"

Zack hesitated only a moment more before speaking. "Harry, I… I think I owe you an apology…"

Harry's mind began racing even as he spoke. "What did you do?" Despite the deadpan, if slightly teasing, tone he used, Harry couldn't really recall anything that Zack had recently done to raise his ire. Which led to the conclusion that something had happened during the school day that the Black Ranger felt needed to be apologized for before explaining what happened.

Oh joy.

Zack's next words put paid to that theory, however. "It's not so much what I did as what I haven't been doing. I didn't believe you when you were talking about something going on between Kimberly and Tommy and how forgetful she was being and how strange it was… But you were right, man… you were so right…"

Harry internally groaned and made a quick scan across the Youth Center crowd, not spotting any of the other Rangers or Tommy just yet. "So what happened? I'm guessing it was something at school, yeah?"

Zack nodded. "Yeah, something happened alright, but not to Kimberly and Tommy. As far as I can tell, her ideas for getting around this forgetfulness are working out for her. No, man, what happened was that Angela cornered me today."

Harry's eyes went wide when he realized what Zack was talking about. In all of his scouting and, let's just face it, spying on his friends, he had mainly been focused on Kimberly and Tommy, because Tommy was really the main reason he was aware of the whole situation, and Billy and Marge, because they were together during Billy's Science Club turned study group.

But, aside from himself and Trini, those weren't the only relationships to exist amongst the Power Ranger teens. Zack and Angela had been an item for three months at this point and, according to those who had known him longer, Zack had rarely been happier than he was when in the presence of his long time crush. But with the whole strange phenomenon causing the Rangers to seemingly abandon/ignore most of the people they knew, including those they were dating, that relationship would have been in jeopardy too.

Harry really did feel like the lowest kind of person for overlooking his energetic friend's potential troubles simply because he hadn't thought of them at the time. Too distracted with the more obvious problems to devote any thought to much of anything else.

Zack saw his look of guilt and must have mistaken it for sympathetic shock as he nodded. "Yeah, she called me out on doing basically the exact same thing you were saying that Kimberly was doing to Tommy. I thought I was done for right there, man, I tell you. But then she says how sweet she thought it was that I was trying to help out my longtime friends with their issues so they could stay together."

Harry blinked a few times, one eyebrow quirked. "She basically accused you and gave you an out at the same time?"

Zack nodded, a trace of his typical happiness flashing in his eyes coupled with a kind of lovesick stare that he usually got when waxing eloquent on the subject of Angela.

Seriously, how had he forgotten about Zack's girlfriend?

Zack snapped out of his daze and continued his story. "Anyway, then she told me that, while it was a noble gesture and she could appreciate what I was doing, it was clear to everyone that whatever problems Kim and Tommy had been having was sorted now and she was tired of being ignored."

"Sounds like you dodged the bullet then," Harry said with another nod, idly grabbing a damp cloth and wiping down the counter as he spoke. He figured Ernie wouldn't mind if he stopped for a bit to speak to a friend, but he didn't want to give the man any reason to take Richie's accusations seriously.

Zack winced slightly, glancing over his shoulder before responding. "More or less, Harry. Problem is that now I'm taking her on a date tomorrow afternoon after the Field Day the school is having."

Harry just blinked. "And that's a problem because…?"

Zack shook his head. "Harry, what if I forget about it again? It took so long for me to convince Angela to just give me a chance, and she's been great! I've been living the dream, and whatever is going on could take it all away from me without me even noticing. Angela is not the kind of girl to give a guy another chance if I blow it like that, so this is it. If I forget again tomorrow, I'm toast."

Harry nodded, tossing the cleaning rag over his shoulder and into the sink. "So what are you doing to make sure you remember?" He paused for a moment before continuing. "Also, what Field Day?"

Zack winced again before answering. "That's… kinda why I'm here. I was hoping you would be able to help me keep the date…"

Harry just stared for a moment. "Alright…" he said slowly. "Can I ask why me?"

Zack shrugged. "Well, you know I'd normally go to Jason, but if this strange effect is messing with him too, then he's probably not the best bet. Same goes with Billy. I could ask Tommy, but he's been keeping himself kinda isolated except from you and Kim lately. Other than this last get together we had and the whole broom ball thing, I've barely seen him. Plus the whole guilt for not noticing or believing that there was a problem thing still applies."

Harry snorted, giving a teasing smile to the Ranger. "Good to know I was your last choice through process of elimination." When Zack only barely smiled, Harry decided to cut him some slack. "Alright, Zack, I'll see what I can do. If nothing else, I'll have Hedwig annoy you until you remember. Old bird is a romantic at heart, I think. But I don't think that it will be necessary in the end. Kimberly proved that the effect can be overcome with enough dedication, and where Angela is involved, you have nothing if not dedication."

Zack's face finally lit up in a true smile. "Thanks man…"

The two stood there smiling lightly for several moments before the atmosphere got a bit awkward. Before Zack could wander off, Harry reiterated his second question. "So, the Field Day?"

Equally happy for the change in subject, Zack started speaking again. "Oh yeah. It's an annual thing that the school does on the first weekend of Spring Break. A bunch of outdoor games and such. We usually do it in the park and the weather is supposed to be really nice tomorrow."

Harry was momentarily taken aback at the mention of Spring Break, but then mentally equivocated it to Easter Break and rolled with it. Then he thought again and swept his eyes over the crowd. "Wait, so today was the last day before Spring Break starts, a whole week off of school for all the students of Angel Grove, and the Youth Center isn't any busier than on any other Friday?"

Zack chuckled, his good nature returning in full with his earlier worries soothed by his friend's assurances. "That's how seriously some people take the annual Field Day, man. I bet most of them are resting up for the games."

"And I fully expect you to be there tomorrow, Harry." Ernie said, catching both Rangers by surprise as he stepped up next to the Magi Ranger. "When the weather is bad, we usually hold the games here, but since we're looking at clear skies and sunshine all day tomorrow the Youth Center will be closed until the games are over. I'm gonna be running a food table, but I should hope that you're gonna be with your friends."

Seeing Zack's agreement in his expression and knowing better than to argue with Ernie when he was this passionate about something, Harry nodded. He was sure Trini would be happy to know he was gonna be there at least. And if nothing else, it would certainly make it easier for him to remind Zack about his date with Angela.

Speaking of…

"So, Zack." Harry said suddenly. "What are you planning on doing on this mandatory date of yours?"

Zack's expression went from zero to panic so fast that Harry couldn't help but laugh.

-MR-

The next day, Harry did indeed meet up with the other Rangers and Tommy at Angel Grove Park for the aforementioned Field Day competition. The day was largely taken up with smaller games, including various track and field competitions like footraces and long and high jumps, as well as things like swimming competitions in the lake, martial arts tournaments, and even an archery contest for no adequately explained reason. In addition to all this, there were also other sports competitions, with basketball, soccer, tennis, and even volleyball teams competing throughout the day.

Rather more varied than Harry had expected, but at least there was something for everyone.

As was to be expected, Jason and Tommy had signed up for the martial arts tournament. More surprising was Kimberly signing up for archery (though perhaps not as surprising to Harry and the Rangers as it would be to anyone else who knew her), while Billy, Zack, and Trini preferred to wait for the main event, not that any of them would tell Harry what that was.

No, those three preferred to watch the others, Trini and Harry spending most of the first few hours watching their fellow Rangers in their competitions and generally spending time together. Zack did something similar as he spent the entire day with Angela, though Harry was sure that a fair bit of their conversation was Zack trying to figure out what to do on their date. Billy stuck with Harry and Trini for a while before eventually wandering off on his own. Whether that had been because of a hint from Trini or Billy's own observations, or even just boredom, Harry didn't particularly know.

After several hours of various contests of skills (Jason and Tommy meeting in the timed final round of the tournament which resulted in a tie and Kimberly placing third in the archery contest), the main event of the Angel Grove High Field Day was finally upon them: The Oddball Games.

And no, the reason for this name was never explained.

When the finale of the day's festivities were announced, all interested parties gathered up and were placed on teams, each team having a sponsor. Surprisingly enough (or again, probably not too surprising all things considered) the five participating Rangers and Tommy all ended up on the Red Team that was sponsored/coached by Ernie. Unfortunately for Zack, Angela ended up on the Blue Team, sponsored/coached by the owner of a local pizzeria. Unfortunately for Angela, Bulk and Skull were also on that team.

In any case, the number of people looking to participate necessitated seven teams in total: black, pink, blue, yellow, red, green, and purple. The teams would then run through a sort of relay race/obstacle course. Each team got a certain number of points for being the first to complete each particular section of the course and the top two scoring teams would face off in a tug of war to decide who won.

For his part, Harry couldn't help but root for the purple team just a bit.

The competition started off with each team figuring out which team member would run which parts of the course. Once that was decided, the race began. It started off fairly straightforward with a straight up 100 yard dash. This part was taken by Billy on the Red Team who showed a surprising amount of agility and stamina, or at least more than was expected of him from those who didn't know of his alter ego, putting his team in first when he tagged off to Tommy.

The former Ranger's portion of the course was a series of hurdles culminating in a six foot high wall to scramble over, which he managed easily. By this point, the race had extended out some distance away from where Harry was watching, but the next leg brought the racers around a curve and back towards them as Kimberly ran said curve and then walked across a long wooden beam extended over a mud pit. Falling off would have not only given her team a penalty, but it would have completely ruined her outfit, so Harry had no doubt that Kimberly would be avoiding that at all costs.

The next leg was a sack race and it was here that the Rangers lost a bit of ground. This was entirely because Zack was the one chosen to run, or hop, for the Red Team, and in a surprisingly brilliant strategic move that was most likely complete luck, Bulk and Skull had sent in Angela for the Blue Team. At the distance he was at, Harry couldn't hear what they were saying, but with how Zack was hopping right by her side and spinning in place to hop backwards, Harry was sure Zack was trying to show off for his neglected feeling girlfriend. It was a strategy that ultimately backfired when Angela said something to him and casually bumped him with her hip, knocking the Black Ranger over in the middle of another curve and taking the lead from the Red Team in the process.

Far from looking upset, Zack quickly struggled back to his feet and hopped as fast as he could to make up for lost time, smiling the whole way.

When Zack finally reached the end of his leg, he tagged off to Jason who immediately took off on his part. Zack had managed to recover fast enough that the Red Team was only slightly behind the blue, but the end was all but a foregone conclusion at this point. This was entirely because the blue participant for this part of the race was Bulk and the obstacle required them to high-step through two sets of tires, one heading away from the crowd, and the next heading back after the final turn of the course. The difficulty in this came when Bulk, after a surprisingly successful run, managed to mistime his final step out of the final tire in the second set and fell flat on his face, letting Jason round the final corner of the course and catch up.

The final leg of the course was a human wheelbarrow, Trini taking the place of the wheelbarrow as Jason picked up her feet and she walked on her hands toward the finish line. Bulk stumbled up to Skull and all but upended him when he jerked the skinnier teen's feet into the air in his haste. By the time the rest of the teams reached the start of the last leg, Jason and Trini were over halfway to the finish line with Bulk and Skull just behind them, mostly because Bulk had forced Skull to scramble to keep himself from faceplanting as he moved as fast as he could to catch up with Jason and Trini.

In the last ten feet, Skull's arms finally gave out, sending his face into the grass and tripping up Bulk to fall on top of him just as Jason and Trini crossed the finish line. At this point, Bulk scrambled back to his feet and practically hauled Skull up, essentially carrying him across the line as well and taking second place for the Blue Team. This meant that it would be red vs blue in the tug of war.

-MR-

"So, guys…" Harry said slowly, walking up to the preparing Red Team, all wearing their red vests over their normal clothes. "Not to be a downer or anything, but I think I need to point something out to you all…" He hated to have to bring this up, but his magical senses had been pinging the last several minutes and it needed to be addressed.

While Jason seemed ready to dismiss Harry and anything he had to say out of hand, the others at least turned to face him, it was Tommy that spoke though. "Go ahead, bro. What's up?"

Glancing around at the massive crowd that was getting more and more excited for the upcoming tug of war by the moment, Harry drew his wand with a flick of his wrist. Waving it subtly, Harry cast a pair of temporary wards around the group: a Muffliato and a weakened Notice-Me-Not.

Really more of a "Don't-pay-a-lot-of-attention-to-this-place" as opposed to a "Nothing-Here-IGNORE-ME!" It might be odd if the entire Red Team suddenly disappeared to everyone's senses. At the very least they'd probably be disqualified.

With his protections against eavesdropping in place, Harry took a deep breath before speaking. "I just wanted to remind you guys that five of you are experiencing unexpected bursts of super powers whenever you get excited. You know, the whole increased strength because of stronger Power unless you keep yourselves calm and/or don't get carried away…"

Almost at once, the five Rangers seemed to get what Harry was suggesting. While the competition thus far had been fairly tame, mostly because Bulk and Skull had been too busy failing at most everything in their parts of the obstacle course to cause problems, a tug of war was just the kind of situation where unintended desperation could lead to them drawing on their extra Power and getting inexplicably stronger. Harry really couldn't be sure if they were more worried about the fact that it would technically be cheating or revealing their secrets, but he knew they were all affected by his statement.

The reactions amongst the Rangers were rather easy to read. Billy had almost immediately got a thoughtful look on his face, no doubt crunching numbers and running through all sorts of theories and information inside his head. Kimberly began looking worried, something that Tommy immediately notices as he rested a hand on her shoulder in comfort. Zack flinched when he realized what Harry was suggesting before getting a thoughtful look on his face. Trini looked just as worried as Kimberly, but she also had a bit of a hurt look in her eyes as she stared at Harry.

It was Jason, ever stern and stoic, who spoke, showing absolutely no concern over Harry's comment. "We can handle it, Harry. We've all been practicing our control over this extra Power since Zordon explained the dangers. If we've managed to keep it under wraps so far, we can do it in one little tug of war." Though his words weren't quite inflammatory, he spoke with a tone of such complete condescension that Harry's eyes narrowed almost reflexively and he had to fight down the urge to respond with a witty retort. He doubted that telling Jason that he had already been sensing the subtle yet steady rising of their internal Power as the day progressed would help things too much.

But whatever Jason's intent, the other Rangers took their leader's words to heart and firmed up their resolve, nodding their agreement. Only Trini kept her former gaze. The hurt and worry staying strong in her expression until she spoke. "Don't you trust us, Harry?"

Harry's eyes widened again in shock as he realized what Trini was getting at. She thought that he doubted their ability, HER ability, to control themselves, and Jason's reply probably only helped solidify that view of him. He shook his head quickly, stepping up and taking one of Trini's hands as he spoke. "It's not a matter of trust at all, Trini. Look, I know as well as anyone how someone can lose track of where they are and what they're doing when they get excited. I'll have to tell you sometime of how I nearly got killed by a horde of soul sucking demons because of my single-minded focus on a Quidditch game. I just wanted to caution you guys against that same overconfidence."

Trini looked thoughtful for a moment before nodding slightly, squeezing his hand comfortingly before turning back to Jason as he spoke again. "Like I said, Harry. We've got it under control. Now come on team, let's win that trophy!"

With a firm step, Jason broke the ward line that Harry had set, stepping out of the weak wards and destabilizing them in the process. Harry just sighed as the others followed, sheathing his wand in its holster even as Trini and Tommy gave him small smiles.

He really hoped this didn't backfire on them all…

-MR-

A few minutes later, Mr. Caplan called the two teams to either side of the mud pit from Kimberly's part of the obstacle course. The balance beams had been removed from over the pit, leaving only a fifteen foot wide bog of nastiness that had a rope stretched over it. On one side, was the Red Team. To those in the know, they were the Power Rangers… plus one. To those who didn't know, which was pretty much everyone that wasn't already a current or former Ranger, they were some of the youth leaders of their generation.

On the other side, was the Blue Team. Led by Bulk and Skull, if only because they talked the loudest, assisted by Angela and another three fairly athletic students. At least they were all good enough that they had been able to cinch second place for their team despite Bulk and Skull effectively bumbling the last two parts of the course.

To the casual onlooker, the teams seemed as if they should be about even between Jason and Tommy's strength from their martial arts training and Bulk's… bulk, all averaged out by their other teammates physique.

Mr. Caplan called for the teams to take their positions and both sides lined up. Bulk and Skull, predictably, took the front positions on their side of the muck with Angela in third and the other three behind her. For the Red Team, Jason took the front, with Trini behind him, then Zack, Billy, Kimberly, and finally Tommy taking the last place.

Of course, Bulk, being Bulk, couldn't help but taunt his opponents. "You geeks should just give up now. Save yourselves the trouble and the trip into the mud."

Zack fired back, though not at Bulk. "Hey, Angela! Are you sure you don't want to defect to the winning side?"

Before Angela could respond, but not before she rolled her eyes at Zack's comment, Bulk cut in. "Yeah right, Zack. Angela knows which team has the real men!" Bulk dramatically lifted one arm into the air, making a muscle for emphasis.

"Yeah! The real men!" Skull parroted, his own skinny arm mimicking Bulk's in a much, much less impressive way.

After waiting a few moments to make sure the pre-match banter was over, Mr. Caplan raised both arms. "Both teams ready?" Getting a nod from Jason and Bulk as both teams readied themselves to pull, Caplan brought a whistle to his lips. "Then, begin!" With a shrill blast from the whistle, both teams started pulling.

For the first several seconds, both teams were fairly even. From Harry's place behind and to one side of the school principal, closer to the Red Team naturally, neither team seemed to be giving an inch. He couldn't really hear too much over the cheering of the crowd, but Harry could see Jason and Trini both yelling, most likely encouraging the others and/or coordinating a team pull.

Then, slowly but surely, the Blue team started losing ground. Bulk's eyes widened in panic as he realized the biggest downside of being at the front of his team was being the closest to the mud pit. Then, Bulk slipped, his panic making him lose his footing and fall onto his backside. Harry heard another shout from the Red Team, quickly followed by all six of them pulling at once causing the Blue team to lose a full foot or more, Bulk's scrabbling feet unable to find purchase and his size preventing him from simply standing up again.

Finally, mere inches from losing the match, Bulk's feet found purchase once more, digging into the softened earth around the mud pit and finally halting his teams advance toward the mud. At this point, with another concerted effort, the Rangers would have most likely been able to pull Bulk once more, dragging him into the mud and winning the contest, but instead, they hesitated.

And Harry could tell why.

When Bulk and come to a stop, there had been a brief surge of Power coming from one of the Rangers. It most likely came as a result of frustration at Bulk stopping himself at the last moment, but whatever the cause, they didn't all respond to the rallying call Tommy made in an effort to finish things. And so the moment passed.

After that, slowly but surely, Bulk began pushing himself backwards. He didn't take the time to stand, and because of that the Rangers were unable to pull him off balance. So long as Bulk's team kept up the strain on the rope, he was basically acting as an anchor, preventing the Rangers from pulling him back toward the mud. And with the surprising amount of strength to be had in his legs, which made sense as he had to walk around carrying his own weight every day, the Blue Team was making steady progress.

From there, the contest really was a foregone conclusion.

Without being able to get the entire team onto the same page again, an effort that was stymied time and time again by another pulse of Power from one or another of the Rangers that said Rangers then spent focus trying to fight back down, they couldn't resist the Blue Team's coordinated efforts. With their attentions split, Bulk's inexorable retreat from the mud pit meant that it was Jason that was the first to lose his footing and his grip on the rope, pinwheeling his arms in a vain attempt at maintaining balance as he stumbled into the pit before his feet slid completely out from beneath him, resulting in the Red Ranger landing on his back and sinking a few inches into mud.

When Jason lost his grip, the rest of the team were unable to take up the slack and so Trini and Zack found themselves jerked off their feet and flying into the mud, only really able to direct themselves enough that they didn't land on Jason when they hit the mud face first.

Billy, Kimberly, and Tommy also stumbled forward several steps when Jason's hold on the rope disappeared. Unlike the others, they were far enough back that they were able to regain their balance before hitting the mud. It was a close thing in Billy's case, however, as he found himself leaning over the mud pit, his arms pinwheeling at his sides while his feet remained on firm ground, with Kimberly's grip on the back of his vest being the only think that kept him from falling.

The crowd's cheering was deafening.

The completely unexpected victory from Bulk and Skull's team brought out an even larger cheer than the Red Team would have gotten if they had won. Probably had something to do with the whole underdog thing, Harry mused as he jogged over to the Red Team's side. Joining him was Angela who, having been closer than Harry, was already laying her blue vest on the mud, only to step onto it herself to get a bit closer to Zack's flailing form while still keeping as much mud off of herself as she could manage.

Harry, heedless of the mud, stepped in on Jason's left where Trini had fallen and grabbed ahold of his girlfriend's blindly flailing hand, her other too busy scraping semi-solid gunk off of her face. The Yellow and Black Rangers had managed to turn themselves around into sitting positions, but both were completely covered on their fronts in the sticky muck.

Harry really had to work hard to keep a chuckle or two down.

Feeling Harry's hand, though she probably didn't know it was him since she still couldn't really see, Trini allowed herself to be pulled up and out of the pit and back onto solid ground. There, Kimberly met them with a towel and a water bottle which the two girls used to clean the majority of the mud off of Trini's face so she could see and breath properly again. At the same time, Billy passed a similar pair of items off to Angela who was helping Zack.

Harry, along with Tommy, waded back into the mud to help Jason out. The Red Ranger just lay there, staring up into the sky as if in shock at what had just happened. "Hey, Jason… you in there?" Tommy asked as he and Harry stood next to the prone Power Ranger.

When there was no immediate response the two shared a concerned glance before crouching down next to him. "Hey, Jason," Harry said, shaking his shoulder as he did. "Come on, let's get you out of this mud, yeah?"

Jason blinked a few times before his eyes seemed to focus in on Harry. Then they twitched over to Tommy and he gave a slight nod. "Yeah… yeah, that might be a good idea."

More than a bit concerned for Jason's mental health at this point, Harry and Tommy each grabbed one of Jason's mud covered arms and heaved. Before all of his martial arts training, pulling a person Jason's size out of wet, sucking mud would most likely have been beyond him, but now, and with Tommy's help, such an act only took a little extra effort to get him free from the wet earth's hold. Jason stood unsteadily for a moment before finding his balance and turning to walk back to the rest of his team without another word.

Harry and Tommy shared another glance before following after him. Harry reached the edge and stepped out just as Trini removed the towel from her face one last time, revealing her only slightly mud streaked visage. "Hey!" Harry remarked with a smile as we walked up to her. "There you are! I could hardly recognize you under all that gunk."

Trini rolled her eyes. "Very funny, Harry." Trini then got a wicked look on her face and, before he could step away again, plopped her still muddy right hand onto his left cheek and smeared it around. "But you know, you really should try it. Mud baths are supposed to be great for your skin."

Harry jerked back in surprise, completely unable to avoid the majority of the mud Trini had just smeared onto his face but found himself laughing moments later. "Alright, I probably deserved that." He said with a smile that Trini returned before embracing him in a full on hug that smeared even more mud onto him. "And somehow, someway, I could probably be convinced that I deserved that too," Harry sighed.

"You did," Jason's voice said from behind him, sounding much colder than Harry was used to hearing from the Red Ranger, a surprise all on its own. "That and quite a bit more, really."

Harry turned around quickly, almost expecting to find Jason with a handful of mud to hit him with too, but instead he was met with the Red Ranger's furious gaze while Billy stood next to him looking confused. "We should have won that, you know. We would have if you hadn't distracted us before the match."

"Hey, Jace," Tommy said from next to the Red Ranger opposite from Billy. "Calm down, man. It's just a game."

Jason shot a withering look at Tommy who recoiled in surprise before meeting it with a glare of his own. "Just leave it, man. It's not that big of a deal."

The Red Ranger kept Tommy's gaze for a few more moments before shaking his head and walking off, assumedly to find something to help him get cleaned up. Harry followed him with his eyes, completely taken aback by Jason's reaction. "Would it help if I said I was sorry?" he asked weakly, turning back to face Trini and a shocked looking Kimberly behind her.

"It might," Trini offered with a shake of her head. "But I probably wouldn't try it just now. He does have a bit of a point, Harry. You bringing that up before the match started definitely distracted us."

Harry took a breath to offer a rebuttal, but Trini held up one muddy hand to forestall him. "But, we did need to hear it." Trini sighed. "I can't speak for the others, but I did feel my Power, and my strength, shooting up a bit there. If Harry hadn't brought it up, I probably wouldn't have noticed it, and who knows what would have happened then."

Kimberly and Billy nodded in agreement. It made Harry feel a bit better about essentially causing this entire debacle.

Then the moment was destroyed by Zack and Angela joining them, the former wearing a gigantic smile on his face. "Hey guys, what did we miss?"

"Oh, nothing much," Trini said before slapping another gigantic glob of mud onto the previously clean right side of Harry's face. "But I think Harry may need to get cleaned up just as much as the rest of us."

Harry sighed again, turning to face Trini with his mud splattered glasses. "Really?"

Trini just smiled and tossed her towel over his face with a giggle. "I'll see you after the awards ceremony."

Zack snorted. "Yeah, if Bulk and Skull leave us alone long enough. I just know they're never gonna let us live this down."

Billy gave a sigh of his own. "Affirmative. I wouldn't be remotely surprised if they started bringing their trophy to school, just to brag about it."

The Rangers continued to talk as they walked toward where Mr. Caplan was speaking with Bulk, Skull, and the rest of the Blue Team sans Angela who was with the mud splattered Reds. Harry just cleaned his glasses as best he could with Trini's already quite muddy towel and moved to rejoin the crowd.

"Ladies and Gentlemen," Mr. Caplan shouted once he saw that all the participants, including Jason now sporting his own towel, had returned. "We have here, the winners of this year's annual Oddball Games: The Blue Team!" Once again, the cheering from the crowd was nearly deafening and it took several tries for Caplan to get them quiet enough for him to continue.

"And so, I present to the Blue Team," at this point, Mr. Caplan turned around picked up a trophy from a small table behind him. "The coveted Noble Lion Trophy." All said, the trophy really wasn't that big of a deal. It was they typical golden trophy cup shape on a stone-looking base with a golden lion standing atop the trophy, its fore and rear paws resting on opposite sides of the cup. If Harry was honest, it looked fairly cheap.

"And now, with this year's winners-" Caplan's speech was cut off as Bulk reached over and yanked the trophy from his hands and began shouting.

"Oh yeah, baby! We won!" Bulk cheered, doing a frankly disturbing dance in front of the crowd of onlookers.

Skull, as usual parroted him while doing his own imitation of Bulk's dance. "Yeah! We won!"

"We beat those geeks!"

"Yeah! Geeks!"

"We are the champions!"

"Champions!"

"The Noble Lion Trophy is mine!"

"Yeah, his… uh… ours!"

At this Bulk shot Skull a look out of the corner of his eye and finally stopped his dancing, much to the relief of most of those watching. Before the overweight bully could say anything further, Caplan took the opportunity to retake center stage and stepped around Bulk. Seemingly having given up on finishing his speech after Bulk's interruption, the principal addressed the crowd. "I want you all to remember to have a good time during Spring Break. We'll see you all back at school next week!"

The crowd, largely made up of students, cheered once again before it began breaking up. Some of the people reformed their teams and got back to their sports while others made a bee line for their cars eager to get back home. Harry headed over toward the other Rangers, only for Zack to rush forward to meet him. "Hey, Harry. So Angela and I got to talking, and I'm taking her to a movie on our date."

Harry smiled at the relieved look in Zack's eyes even as a massive smile stretched across his face. It looked like spending most of the day with her was enough for Zack to remember his date all on his own. "Good for you, Zack. Though you might want to take a shower first."

Zack punched Harry's shoulder good naturedly. "That's what I'm heading to do now, Harry. I just wanted to give you a heads up. See ya!"

Harry shook his head as Zack ran off toward the parking lot. He hoped he planned to clean more of the mud off of himself before getting into his car or Zack might have another kind of problem when he went to meet Angela for their movie date. He doubted the dried mud on his clothes look would be too impressive…

When Harry finally reached the others, Jason had disappeared again, most likely still rather unhappy with the ending of the games in general, and Harry's input in that in particular, but the others were still there. "Hey Harry," Trini greeted him with another hug and a mischievous smile, the mud on her clothing having dried enough that not as much transferred between them this time. "We're gonna head home and get cleaned up and then meet back at the Youth Center for some smoothies once Ernie opens it back up. Do you want to join us?"

Harry smiled, his eyes taking in the smiling faces of the other Rangers in front of him. "Sure. I'll meet you guys there."

"Alright then, sounds like a plan." Kimberly cheered before grabbing Trini's arm and practically dragging her away. "Now come on, girl, we've gotta get that mud out of your hair pronto!" Harry shared a laugh with Tommy and Billy before they went their separate ways.

Now the Magi Ranger found himself in a conundrum. Harry was currently covered in mud, largely thanks to Trini's efforts. It would be easy enough to magically clean it off of him, but most cleaning spells were better off not used on bare flesh as they tended to leave it a bit raw afterwards, and conjuring a spray of water from his wand left much to be desired in the way of accuracy and a thorough cleaning, so that meant he needed to get cleaned up the old fashioned way.

Problem with that was, unlike the other Rangers, he didn't exactly have running water where he was staying currently. Heck, there wasn't even a bathroom in the Command Center so Harry had been having to take care of his morning ablutions in the Youth Center bathroom every day. And with the Youth Center closed until Ernie got back there in a few hours, this left Harry wondering where he would be able to get cleaned up with minimal chances of getting caught.

Harry was pondering the possibility of apparating back to the Command Center and just conjuring up a tub or shower of some kind for a quick rinse when a flash of sunlight caught his eye after reflecting off the nearby lake. With so much activity still going on and the swimming events over, there weren't too many people over there, so he could probably get away with magicing up a pair of swim trunks for himself and taking a quick dip. Then it would only be a matter of magically drying himself and apparating back to the Command Center for a change of clothes. Wouldn't be the best clean possible, but it would be enough until he could get access to the Youth Center's showers without breaking in.

Course decided, Harry set off toward the lake. After a few minutes of walking and with the crowds left almost completely behind, Harry found himself coming upon a scene that was worrying, disturbing, and hilarious all at the same time.

About fifty feet away from him, near the shore of the lake, Bulk and Skull were once more locked into a tug of war competition. This time, instead of pulling on a rope, the two sides were pulling on the Noble Lion Trophy. And instead of the two bullies facing off against the Rangers, Skull was pulling on Bulk's leather jacket while Bulk had a firm grip on the base of the trophy while a pair of Z-putties were in a similar position, pulling on the other end.

Huh, guess the trophy wasn't as cheap as Harry had thought…

Thinking fast, Harry broke into a sprint, running directly at the putties. Once he got close enough, Harry leapt into the air. "Aiya!" His kiai drew the attention of all four beings, but his flying kick only smacked into the lead putty, knocking both it and its companion to the ground.

"You two get out of here," Harry shouted. "Get help and get yourselves to safety. There are only two of them, so I'll hold them off."

"But…" Bulk stuttered gesturing wildly. "But my trophy!"

It was only then that Harry realized that the putty he had knocked down had the Noble Lion Trophy held firmly in its grasp. Harry just rolled his eyes as he took a fighting stance. "What's more important, the trophy, or your lives?"

Bulk and Skull exchanged a glance before nodding frantically as they turned and ran, many times stumbling and falling to the ground only to immediately jump back up and resume their flight. Harry just shook his head as he refocused on the putties. "Alright, clay brains, why don't you try picking on someone who can fight back?"

The putties slowly stood back up straight, their heads and arms twitching this way and that as they made a warbling sound. Harry kept his gaze firm and his fists clenched tight as he waited for them to make a move, but when they did, it wasn't at all what he had expected.

The putty holding the Trophy set it down on the ground at its feet before both putties simply vanished into thin air.

Harry blinked. "Well," he said after a moment. "That was odd…"

Before the Magi Ranger could even think of moving to pick up the discarded Noble Lion Trophy, he received the barest flicker of a warning from his magic senses, barely enough time to shield his eyes, before a bolt of Power shot down from the sky and slammed into it, the resulting blast sending Harry flying backwards several yards. With a groan, he lifted his head and his eyes widened drastically as he caught sight of the creature that now stood in the trophy's place.

"Well," he said grimly to himself. "At least Zack won't have to worry about Bulk and Skull using the trophy to taunt them at school anymore…"

The monster before him had a lion's head atop its broad shoulders that, along with its arms and hands, were covered in the golden/tan fur of a lion with claws at the ends of its fingers. Centered on its chest and sticking out of what looked like a green colored piece of armor was a goat's head. Under the goat head's chin was a wide belt and what looked like a pair of dark colored pants, its feet being nothing more than massive hooves. From between its widely space legs, Harry could see a tail of some sort hanging, though he couldn't get too good of a look at it at the moment.

Scrambling back to his feet, Harry raised his communicator and pressed the button to activate it. "Harry to the Command Center."

The communicator only let out a faulty beep.

He tried again. "Harry to the Command Center! Zordon! Alpha! Anyone!" Only another weak beep answered him and Harry took his eyes off the monster for a moment to see why. Apparently, at some point during his rescue of Trini and Jason from the mud pit, his communicator had gotten covered in mud. He didn't doubt that the gunk had somehow shorted out his communicator, which left him without backup for the time being.

"Well, well, little Power Ranger," the monster spoke through the lion's head with a deep, harsh voice. "Looks like you're all alone!"

"Yes!" the goat head spoke as well, catching Harry off guard enough to take a step back in shock before retaking his stance. "You now face Gotan, the Stormbringer! Battle us and face your doom!" In contrast to the lion's deep voice, the goat's was of a more average pitch, maybe slightly higher than most, though it's every word practically vibrated like the 'baa' of a sheep or goat.

"Well, Gotan, the Stormbringer," Harry said, summoning his wand with a flick of his wrist. "Let's see just how well you can back that up." With a quick series of movements that had become quite fluid through so much practice, Harry drew the symbol of the Deathly Hallows in the air before him.

"MAGI RANGER, POWER UP!"

-MR-

AN: Hope you all enjoyed the chapter. Had this one more or less planned out, so it actually came fairly easily this time. Quite nice since I feared I had used up most of my creativity with the mini figures. Lol

The only thing that I really regret is the length. To be honest, I had intended to cover the full monster battle too, try for another 10K+ chapter, but circumstances conspired against me. Though with how long it turned out, it almost reached that length anyway lol. In any case, first off was the whole inspired to be creative, but ended up painting mini figures thing. Then I had to paint a ceiling during our ongoing renovation project and got sick because of the paint fumes as a result, which really curtailed my creative spark. Then, just when I felt medicated enough to get some real work done, our stove decided to freak out on me. I was baking a pizza when the broiler came on completely on its own and wouldn't turn off no matter what I tried. This happened rather late in the evening, so we couldn't just leave it. My brother and I ended up playing with the fuze box, trying to figure out which one would shut off the stove before giving up and just pulling it out from the wall and unplugging it. The thing is probably nearly 30 years old, so it's about time it finally had a breakdown like this, but it's still frustrating.

On the plus side, I was able to save my pizza. : )

So, I just wanted to point out that all those bits earlier in the chapter about Harry forgetting about Angela was totally a reference to me forgetting about her during Harry's spy stuff a few chapters ago. Don't know how I forgot since I planned on using this episode and this plotline pretty much since halfway through Season 1 stuff, but I did. I guess it worked out well in the end though, since Harry forgetting Angela and Zack's relationship meant that he didn't point it out to Zack, so he forgot about her like Kim was with Tommy, which was a nice setup for this entire chapter. Anyway, watching the series, I loved Gotan. Don't know why, but I just loved the monster, the design, the power. I felt it had a lot of potential. Plus, the whole changing a thing into a monster is all sorts of Zedd's thing instead of Rita's, so I poached the Season 1 episode to use as a Season 2 plotline.

But honestly here, how many of you figured out what episode I was doing before the monster appeared? I mean, I know the tug of war thing kinda made it obvious, but how many of you figured out that I was pulling a Season 1 episode in Season 2 before Gotan appeared? This is arguably the biggest continuity change I've made to canon that isn't centered around Harry, so I'm rather curious.

On an unrelated note, what is that little tire step race thing called? I looked and looked but couldn't find anything online. Probably wasn't looking in the right place, but curiosity abounds!

I decided to mix things up a bit more in this chapter too. *Le GASP* The Rangers lost at something! BWAH! I figure that with Harry reminding them of their random bursts of Power enhanced strength and such that they would be more focused on not getting too worked up so as to not do that and technically be cheating, thus they would be distracted, thus they would end up in the mud. Plus it's just something interesting since the Rangers basically never lose unless it's a "to be continued" or the Ranger(s) involved need to learn a life lesson or whatever. But yeah, the decision to do that just kinda came to me all at once and I kinda liked it.

Also, the thing Bulk did with slipping and then scooting backwards, yeah, totally happened to me in 6th grade. My team was winning until the *ahem* biggest kid in my grade at the front of the other team's line slipped and spend the rest of the match on the ground, slowly sliding himself backwards with us unable to pull him off balance again. We lost, but there was no mud involved as we were in our school gymnasium.

Also also, was it just me, or was I a bit more verbose than usual this chapter? Meh.

Thanks for reading and don't forget to review,

Tenstar12


	50. Chapter 50

Magi Ranger

By: Tenstar12

AN: Seriously, did I even edit Chapter 49? I went over it again before starting on this one and I found way too many obvious spelling and grammatical errors that I feel incredibly stupid for having missed. Heck, a few of them were even caught by Spell Check! And I missed them! What the heck, me?

Also, fair warning: this is not a good chapter for Jason. I know there is at least one of you readers out there who is a diehard Jason fan and has been rather bothered with how I'm characterizing him thus far in Magi Ranger. Well, I've mentioned that it's gonna get worse before it gets better and this chapter is, in my opinion, about the worst I've written him being so far. Just a heads up. But we are coming up to the peak, so it won't be too much longer.

Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter or Power Rangers.

 **Chapter 50, or Harry vs Gotan, the Stormbringer, Round 1, FIGHT!**

As soon as the light faded around his now morphed form, Harry sprang forward, launching a spinning kick at Gotan with a fierce kiai. He had hoped that the flash of light would have blinded the monster at least enough to catch it off guard, then he could have pressed the attack to keep it that way. Unfortunately for Harry, Gotan almost casually raised one forearm to block, the Magi Ranger's kick not even managing to shift it an inch upon contact.

Then, with a flex of its apparently very strong arm, Harry was shoved off balance and away from the monster, hitting the ground and rolling back to his feet mere moments later. "You'll have to do better than that, Ranger," the lion taunted. When the monster continued to stand there waiting, Harry decided to take the initiative again and summoned up the Magi Staff.

With another kiai, Harry charged in swinging his staff in vicious arcs that Gotan defended with a similar economy of movement. Each strike Harry sent, no matter what angle, Gotan would shift an arm just enough to protect either of its heads, or step back just far enough to avoid the attack altogether.

To be honest, Harry was getting rather frustrated with the whole thing.

With his anger growing, Harry brought his staff back around from another block, spinning in place with his momentum and flinging out his left arm toward the monster when he came back around, silently incanting a blasting curse as he did so. The moment the spell left his hand with a light shower of sparks, Harry brought his staff back around. When the light of the spell had lit up the monster's faces, it had used one arm to shield each head, one high and one low. Harry's staff managed to land a solid strike just under its right arm, the one that had guarded high, and brought forth a burst of sparks on impact.

Then Gotan's right arm came back down and trapped the Magi Staff between it and the monster's body. With a grunt, Gotan lifted one of its massive hooved feet and delivered a straight kick to Harry's chest, wrenching the Magi Staff out of his grip and sending the Ranger flying and then rolling backwards at least 20 feet.

As Harry struggled back to his feet, Gotan was almost idly examining the light scorch marks on its forearms and side where Harry's attacks had made contact, the Magi Staff having dropped to the ground next to it. Then, with a satisfied grunt, it returned its focus onto Harry. "Well done, Magi Ranger. I almost felt that one." The lion said, a fierce grin only made more fearsome by its many sharp teeth.

"Yes," the goat continued, its tone far more mocking as opposed to the words alone. "It almost tickled!" The goat then broke down into laughter that the lion quickly joined. The combination of the lions deep, booming laugh and the goat's repeated baa-ing was almost amusing, or it would have been if Harry hadn't been in so much danger from the source of the amusing laughter.

He didn't think pointing out the source of his amusement, or even revealing such, would be good for his continued good health.

"Alright," Harry murmured, keeping his eyes on the still laughing monster. "Let's take stock of the situation… My communicator is busted, the monster seems mostly impervious to everything I've tried to throw at it so far and backup is nowhere to be seen. But the others were in the park just a little while ago…

Harry almost smacked himself on the head when the obvious solution came to him.

Without another thought, Harry brought his hand up to his throat and silently cast a Sonorous charm. "ATTENTION, CITIZENS OF ANGEL GROVE. THIS IS THE MAGI RANGER. LORD ZEDD HAS RELEASED A MONSTER IN ANGEL GROVE PARK. PLEASE EVACUATE THE AREA IMMEDIATELY!"

With a similarly silent and wandless Quietus, Harry brought his hand away from his throat and back into his fighting stance, once more focusing his full attention onto the no longer laughing Gotan. What he had just done had two goals for him. The first one was to make sure that all the civilians that heard him, which should have been most of those in the park who would then spread the word as they ran, were out of danger. The second was to, hopefully, alert one or more of the Rangers still in the park. If any of them _were_ still in the park anyway. With his communicator on the fritz, there wasn't much else he could think to do without leaving to get them himself, and that wasn't really an option seeing as it would leave Gotan to rampage unopposed. If the Rangers were all out of the park by now, then he would have to hope that the Command Center's sensors detected the monster, Harry's morph, or both sooner rather than later and raised the alarm.

The monster had its own opinion on Harry's actions though. "Aww," the lion head moaned clenching its fists as it did, something nearly like a pout forming on its gruesome face. "You've just scared away all the snacks!"

Harry recoiled slightly, taking a step back in shock. Had the monster really been planning on eating people?

Just as quickly as it started, Gotan's moping ended, his face stretching once more into a vicious, toothy grin. "Well, that just means I'll have to take my time with you to get my fill!"

"Ah bloody hell…" Harry grumbled, summoning the Magi Staff back to his hand with a charm before retaking his stance

Gotan's lion eyes narrowed, but the goat head spoke this time. "That is an interesting trick. I'll have to remember that for later." And then Gotan waved its hands around in what was mildly discernable as a summoning gesture and manifested a weapon of its own.

A hockey stick?

Really?

Harry had to fight not to roll his eyes, but inside he was raging just a bit. Seriously, why don't any of these monsters make any sense? Would it be too much to ask for Zedd to make a monster that behaved like its initial appearance suggested? For the monster to not have some kind of tool or weapon that was so totally random that it completely ruined the almost theme that the monster had going?

And then the goat spoke again. "Now, Magi Ranger, feel the bite of winter's chill!" When next the goat's mouth opened, it released a gale force wind accompanied by snow and the most bitter cold Harry had felt since his winters spent at Hogwarts. He was feeling its icy bite even though his suit, which had protections of its own to keep that sort of thing from happening despite its relatively thin substance, Harry's vest/cloak not included.

Shielding his face as best he could and casting wandless warming charms one after another only for them to break down under the sheer levels of cold he was facing just as quickly as he could cast them, Harry weathered the storm. When the wind died down, Harry found himself unable to move his feet. Looking down, he saw that his feet, along with everything around himself and the monster for a good twenty to thirty yards had been covered in ice. Even the nearby lake was frozen over, the effect extending a fair distance from the shore.

Well, at least now the hockey stick made more sense…

Still stupid though.

Moving with a surprising amount of agility, Gotan took a few steps forward before sliding on the ice, making motions like an ice skater as it did to propel itself forward despite having hooves for feet instead of anything resembling ice skates. Knowing that there wasn't any way to free himself before Gotan closed the distance, Harry cast a wandless shield charm and braced himself.

When Gotan's strike came, it swung its improvised weapon in a horizontal swing at Harry's chest, roughly stomach high on the monster. Reacting as Tommy had trained him, Harry interposed the Magi Staff between Gotan's swing and his own body, pivoting the shield charm at the same time to lessen the blow further.

It did little in the end.

The shield charm held for a mere fraction of a second before shattering under the strength put behind the blow. The Magi Staff held, but supported as it was by only Harry's morph augmented strength it did little more than the shield to cushion the strike. And so it was with nearly the full force of the monster's strength that Gotan's Hockey stick slammed into Harry, releasing a shower of sparks from the Magi Ranger's suit and wrenching his ankles slightly as he was torn free from the ice.

Harry flew for several feet before hitting the icy ground, sliding along the slick surface before coming to a sudden and unexpected, not to mention slightly painful, stop. Blinking behind his helmet visor, Harry took a moment to try and recover his bleary vision before Gotan came into focus. Both the Lion and Goat heads wore cruel smirks, a rather unusual look on a goat's muzzle to be sure, as Gotan loomed over Harry, having stopped his momentum with its hockey stick before he could leave the ice.

"Oh, no, Magi Ranger," the lion spoke. "I'm not done with you just yet."

Still rather dazed and unable to focus after Gotan's first attack, Harry was unable to do much of anything to avoid Gotan once more making a swing with his hockey stick and smacking him across the ice again. Several more times this happened. Each time Harry neared the edge of the ice, Gotan just seemed to be there, either because of speed or some kind of weird teleportation ability, or maybe even something to do with the nature of the ice the monster created. Once Gotan stopped Harry's momentum, it would occasionally taunt him before sending him sliding away again with a powerful stroke from its weapon.

Harry never really got a chance to recover his wits. The force of each hit meant that he was only traveling for a handful of seconds before he was stopped and redirected again, which worked quite well to keep him befuddled. Any time he gathered even the slightest hint of magic or Power, or even really tried to change his trajectory or regain his feet, Gotan would appear before him, sometimes stopping him early, and smack him again, knocking him once more off balance.

It was really getting quite annoying.

Finally, Gotan seemed to have gotten tired of its game as, with one final smack, he sent Harry skidding and allowed him to fly off the edge of the ice…

And into the lake.

The already cold lake made even more so by Gotan's ice.

His disorientation almost immediately shocked out of him by the cold water, Harry found himself submerged and panicked for a few moments before casting a bubblehead charm. While his helmet may be more or less airtight, there wasn't much oxygen in there and he had never raised the question about the feasibility of underwater battles while morphed.

He really didn't think that trial by fire was the best way to find out if he could still drown while in morph.

With his spell in place and ensuring his continued survival underwater, Harry kicked his way over to the ice. He still wasn't the best swimmer, but he managed to secure himself under the nearly foot thick ice shelf the monster had created mere moments before a shadowy figure stepped up to the edge.

"Where did you go, Magi Ranger?" Gotan's lion voice mocked, accompanied by the braying laughter of the goat head and both distorted by the water. "I figured you might want a little dip to cool yourself off after that beating. Did I really underestimate you that much?"

Harry stayed where he was. What he needed now was a plan. He had to buy more time for the others to arrive and help turn this fight around, but how was he going to do that?

"I felt your magic already, Ranger." Gotan continued, the goat having stopped its laughter by now. "I know you did something down there. I know you aren't dead yet."

That's right, it must have been able to sense his magic use. That's the only way it would have been able to react to any attempt he made to recover, magical or otherwise, while he was being used as a human hockey puck. Come to think of it, it had reacted fairly quickly to his blasting curse earlier, hadn't it? Its block had come almost as quickly as Harry had cast the spell, but those scorch marks and the sparks drawn from his staff's impact were the only mildly effective thing he had managed the entire fight.

"Well then, Magi Ranger…" Gotan growled, the monster's anger showing more clearly now. "If you aren't going to come out on your own…"

The goat's head spoke up, finishing the lion's sentence. "I'll just have to BLAST YOU OUT!"

With that, Harry heard another sound, similar to the noise of the freezing wind earlier but not quite the same. In addition, this new noise was accompanied by a Power output far and away greater than the monster's icy attack had had.

Moving quickly, Harry twisted in place, not an easy thing to do under water, and apparated himself back onto the shore. Unfortunately, he landed on the ice and managed to slip and fall as soon as he appeared. Fortunately, Gotan was too engrossed in launching what looked like a tornado from the goat's mouth up and into the sky where ominously dark clouds were gathering. Whatever Gotan was doing, it was releasing a massive amount of Power to do it, and Harry felt it best if he prepare himself.

If nothing else though, this level of output would HAVE to be enough to tip off the Command Center's sensors, so backup should hopefully be on the way soon.

Gritting his teeth, Harry called the Magi Staff back to his side once again. He had lost the staff at some point during Gotan's game, but it was once again a simple matter to retrieve it. With his focus once more in hand and Gotan still apparently too distracted to notice what Harry was doing, he began to call up Power.

Ever since regaining the Elder Wand, Harry's control had been a matter of constant struggle. While this was very much still the case, what he did have was more Power to work with than ever before. And in a situation where he just needed to blast something really good and keep it blasted until help arrived, it was quite close to ideal. Or at least workable.

Reaching down within himself, Harry, reluctantly, opened himself to the grid and felt its seemingly endless Power flow into him. Flickers of light in the corner of his eyes let him know that he was now giving off a light purple aura as excess Power bled off out of his control. That was fine with him though, it tended to add to the image a bit and with so much Grid Power flowing through him, that was something he was concerned with at the moment.

Suddenly, and with a roar of triumph from Gotan, a bolt of lightning arced down from the ominous clouds overhead, grounding out in the lake water and lasting far longer than any normal bolt of lightning would have. It was, as usual, shortly accompanied by a massive burst of thunder that nearly deafened the Magi Ranger. If it hadn't been for his suit, it probably would have. As it was, his ears were still ringing even as Gotan's laughter turned to confusion as the bodies of many fish began floating up from the depths, stunned or outright killed by the monster's lightning strike.

"Where is that pathetic Power Ranger!?" the lion roared as rain began to fall from the gathered storm clouds in a torrential downpour, severely limiting line of sight.

"Try looking behind you!" Harry shouted as he felt his Power capacity reach its peak and throttled back on the flow from the Grid.

As soon as Gotan turned, all four of its eyes going wide when they took in his glowing form, Harry flung one hand forward, palm open wide and with his staff held tightly in his other hand. From his open palm, a wave of purple energy raced forth, tearing up the ice beneath it as it went and carving a trench toward the monster. In a panic, Gotan crossed its arms defensively again, only for the blast to push it backwards and out over the lake, still carrying the monster through sheer momentum.

With a slight grunt of effort, Harry clenched his fist before bending his arm at the elbow, moving his fist upward. In return, the wave of energy shifted, enveloping the monster that had been kicking up rooster tails of water with the speed of its passing and then lifting the now flailing creature high up into the air over the lake. After a few minutes of fruitless struggling, Gotan began to roar in anger while Harry merely kept his focus on holding the monster where it was. It was only this intense focus that allowed Harry to detect the slight change in the monster as it tried to stretch out its right arm.

Extending his senses, Harry noticed what the monster had already sensed: one of Zedd's growth bombs. With a smirk behind his helmet, Harry waited until the grenade was mere inches from Gotan's grasp before smacking it aside with a tendril of kinetic force extended from the spell still holding Gotan. The monster's rage returned to full fury as the bomb fell to the water below that erupted into a watery explosion shortly afterward. When the water settled, it revealed a very large, very dead fish, easily fifty feet long from head to tail. Harry idly filed away the fact that Zedd's bombs worked on more than just monsters before turning his attention back to the situation at hand.

If Zedd was willing to try it once, he would probably try it again. For now, he had Gotan trapped, but there was no telling how long that would last.

With a shrug and no small amount of mental strain, Harry drew more Power into the Magi Staff, splitting the active flow of Power from the Grid into that fueling the kinetic hold on Gotan and a larger portion to fuel an attack.

This splitting of his concentration caused more Power to be lost to waste, increasing the glowing effect around him, but that didn't matter at this point. Harry knew that Gotan was tough. If a blasting curse, something capable to destroying stone walls, merely scorched him, then it would take a stronger than average blast of Power to take him out as well.

Luckily, he was feeling up to a bit of revenge today and so was willing to put in the work to get said stronger than average blast of Power.

Clenching his free hand tighter, Harry watched as Gotan's flailing stopped, the monster roaring in rage as its movements were further restricted as Harry brought him in for a closer shot. At the same time, he guided the Power in the Magi Staff to gather at the end into his partial finisher, if a rather overpowered variant.

Then, just as Gotan passed over the edge of the ice he had created, if a good 30 feet in the air above it, Harry heard a voice coming from behind him.

"Harry!" It was Trini's voice, that fact proven true when she, followed by Billy, Kimberly, and Jason came into his line of sight all in morph and brandishing their blade blasters.

"Harry, are you alright?" Trini continued, taking in his heavily scorched suit as best she could through the near blinding rain and bright purple aura radiating off of him.

"Oh yeah," Harry said through teeth gritted in concentration. "I'm doing great. Just juggling two spells while I prepare to destroy Zedd's latest creation. You know, just another day."

"Is that why you're lit up like a Christmas tree?" Kimberly asked, her quirked eyebrow implied by her tone. Then she looked out over the lake, spied the giant, dead fish and turned back. "And what's with the whale?"

"Yes, that would be why." Harry replied shortly before returning his focus to his spells. Gotan's strength was great, and his kinetic grip needed a bit more reinforcing lest the monster escape. "And that is what happens when a Zedd bomb falls into a lake filled with electrocuted fish."

"Good job, Harry," Jason said, almost sounding as if the admission was painful to give. "We'll take it from here."

Wait, what?

"It's all good, Jason." Harry said evenly. "I've got it under control. Just give me another second, and-"

"Just bring him in a bit lower so we can get him with our blade blasters," the Red Ranger replied, disregarding Harry's words entirely.

"Not a good idea, Jason. I'm currently charging a blast that'll be enough to finish the monster off. No need to get involved or anything. Quick, clean, done. Day is saved. Go about your business. Smoothies on me at the Youth Center.

"Now if we only had Zack here we could finish him off with the Power Blaster. But the Blade Blasters and our Power Weapons will have to do until he gets here."

"Seriously?" Harry asked, turning his head slightly to direct his words more towards the other three Rangers who were standing somewhat uneasily to the side. "I am speaking English here, right? Gotan didn't knock my brain all off kilter and leave me speaking gibberish or anything?"

Billy shrugged. "You appear to be speaking in an easily comprehendible manner to me."

At this point, Harry's finisher had fully formed and was humming with Power at the end of the Magi Staff, just waiting to be launched. The problem was that Jason had made his way to stand directly in the attack's path. Granted, he was well below the flight path, but he was still in the line of fire which inclined Harry toward not releasing his attack just yet.

"Harry!" Jason shouted again, turning his head slightly as he spoke. "Bring the monster down lower. I can't guarantee a hit with my blade blaster at this distance with the weather like it is."

Harry nearly growled in frustration. "And I told you, Jason, that I have it handled. This guy is too tough for the blade blasters anyway. I hit it with a blasting curse earlier and the spell barely scorched it."

Jason nodded in understanding for a moment before holstering his blade blaster, prompting the others to do the same, and calling up his Power Sword in a flash of red light. "Then we should probably just go with the Power Weapons then. Good call, Harry, but you'll have to bring him even closer so I can reach him."

Harry nearly felt like screaming at this point. In addition, his attack was still drawing in Power from the Grid and was quickly reaching a point beyond which Harry would be unable to control it.

"I can't bring him any lower, Jason." Harry said slowly, trying to keep his temper. "If I do, then the blast from my attack will end up messing up the park too. It's going to be close as it is!"

Jason turned halfway, his helmet turned further to face Harry full on. "I said bring him lower, Harry. We can't beat him if we can't reach him."

"And I told you've got it handled, Jason." Harry gestured to the glowing and now sparking ball atop his staff with a nod of his head.

"I'm the leader of this team and I order you to lower the monster down so we can all attack it together!"

Harry's eyes went wide in surprise. Did Jason really just play that card? Really? What was going through his head? Was he so sore over losing the tug of war, arguably because of Harry's warning distracting them all, that he'd try and order Harry to abandon a superior position just so he could do things his way? What was he trying to do?

When Harry made no immediate response, Jason turned away from him again. "Fine, don't bring him down, but you can believe that we'll be having words about this later." And with that, Jason leapt.

As far as Power Ranger Super Jumps went, it was fairly standard, a hop to bring his feet together, followed by a full on jump that rocketed him into the air and toward Gotan with his Sword drawn back to strike the monster. There were just two problems with the situation.

Firstly, there was a very good chance that any hit on the monster would destabilize Harry's kinetic hold, freeing Gotan and making the battle much longer than necessary. Second, and this realization made Harry's eyes widen, his still charging attack was mere seconds away from that critical point of beyond-his-control and now Jason now in the line of fire and approaching the same altitude as the target.

Time seemed to slow down for Harry as he considered his options. Option one was to launch his attack at Gotan. The problem with this was that Jason was rapidly approaching the monster's floating location and would undoubtedly get caught in the same attack, quite possibly with the same effect as the monster getting hit. This, for obvious reasons, was unacceptable. Jason had been exceedingly and unusually unreasonable toward Harry, and especially today, but he didn't deserve to be killed over it.

The next option would be to drop his kinetic spell holding the Monster in place. This would drop Gotan, but it would give Harry more focus to deal with the sparking ball of death that he had unintentionally made at the end of his staff. On the down side, Jason would probably miss Gotan in the fall, and it would leave the monster once more free to cause havoc. Not the least of which would be throwing off Harry's concentration on the aforementioned sparking ball of death causing it to detonate.

The third option would be to try and syphon Power off the ball. If he then fed that Power into his aura bleed off, he could avert the explosion, but Gotan would most likely still end up being freed when Jason's attack hit. On the other hand, if he tried to move Gotan out of Jason's path, the ball would explode on its own before he could fire it. If only he hadn't been so distracted that he hadn't shut off the attack's Power feed. This whole thing could have been avoided if he'd just done that.

Heck, he should have just launched the attack when it was ready instead of arguing with Jason.

He should have-

He was out of time.

With a cry of fury and frustration, Harry thrust his staff forward and up, launching the overpowered ball of Power off of his staff and into the air.

At the same time, Jason drew close enough to strike the still struggling monster, but just before he did, he noticed a purple light illuminating both himself and the monster. In shock, he turned his head just in time to see Harry's attack fly past him, past the monster, and up, up, up high into the sky before disappearing into the storm clouds above.

Quickly recovering himself, Jason continued with his attack, perhaps a second or two later than he would have liked, letting out a fierce kiai as he swung his Power Sword. With the monster trapped as it was, his attack easily lashed across the goat's head, severing the beard growing on that head's chin and creating a long, thin scorch mark across the monster's abs with a shower of sparks.

The attack also broke through the last tentative hold that Harry's kinetic hold had on the monster, just as he had predicted, freeing it and sending it into free fall with the added force of Jason's attack. Gotan just roared in pain as it fell, smashing through the ice it created over the lake with the increased force Jason's attack added to its velocity.

Mere moments after the monster crashed down, there was a massive explosion from high above. Harry looked on grimly as his attack detonated within the storm clouds, dispersing them almost instantly as the shockwave created washed over them all with a physical force, rustling trees and undoubtedly setting of more than one car alarm if there were any still close enough to the park.

On the bright side, the rain had stopped.

On the down side, Jason rounded on Harry (again) as soon as he landed. "What the heck was that, Harry? That blast could have killed me!"

Harry growled, but refused to back down. "I know that, Jason, that's why I had to aim to miss you. Because you GOT IN THE WAY! I told you I had this handled. That blast would have easily destroyed the monster, but you had to try and get involved!"

"You're still trying to prove you're still needed for this team, Harry, but the fact is that you aren't. You need to learn to accept that we can handle Zedd's creations without you. You didn't hand over an immensely powerful magical artifact to Zedd after all."

The other three Rangers gasped almost as one at Jason's words and Harry felt his blood run cold. "Seriously, Jason. That's how you're gonna play this? Because it seems to me that you're the one who feels like he has something to prove, not the other way around."

Further argument was interrupted when Gotan erupted from the hole in the ice his impact had made in a geyser of water. "I hope you haven't forgotten about me little Power Pests!"

The goat continued speaking where the lion left off. "Because you may have dispelled my storm, but I'm not called 'the Stormbringer' because it's some paltry trick I can only do once! Once I've dealt with you all, I'll whip up a storm that will level this entire city!"

Jason turned away from Harry and stepped back to the fore of his other three teammates. "Harry, we'll deal with this later. For now, go find Zack while we hold off the monster. He wasn't answering his communicator earlier, so he might need some help."

For his part, Harry was through arguing with the Red Ranger anymore. Shooting Trini an apologetic look, though in his anger he almost found himself wondering why he should be apologetic at all, he spun in place an apparated away.

He just hoped that the others didn't pay for Jason's ego.

-MR-

AN: This one was a bit different. As I wrote most of it, I had a wonderful sinus headache and I've been coming off of what I'm convinced was a sinus infection, or at least I certainly had the fever for it, so I definitely wasn't at my best. This is also why it's a bit shorter and why what should have been a two parter is a three parter. I tried, ya'll, I really did, but I just couldn't focus enough to get any further with this headache. And with the way my life goes and all the other projects I have going on, I just didn't have the time to devote to get it any better than what it is now.

Anyway, the first thing I tried to build on was Gotan's inexplicable hockey stick. I'm sure you all caught onto how odd I found the weapon when I watched the episode in question based on Harry's reaction. So I figured why not have the monster actually use it as a hockey stick? Meh, why not, right? And so we have Harry Potter, the Power Ranger Hockey Puck.

Another thing was how Trini comments on there being a storm that came from nowhere in canon, and yet when the Rangers battle Gotan, there is no rain. I know this is another one of those Sentai vs Saban differences, but I still felt it warranted addressing. That and it sorta adds to the drama of the moment.

Also, every time I've typed out "Gotan," I've had to stop myself from correcting it to "Gohan." Been rewatching DBZ Abridged. Lol

As I mentioned at the beginning, we are nearing the peak of the "Jason-the-Prick" portion of Magi Ranger. If my mental plan is right, we've got the conclusion of this battle next chapter, and then the big blow up when Jason peaks out in his immense dislike for Harry, followed by a series of arcs involving a plot point that I don't think has ever been fully explored and certainly wasn't addressed in canon, ultimately leading to Harry and Jason making up and Jason not being a prick any more. Yay!

Next chapter should be fun for me too. You see, I am currently downloading the Fallout 76 BETA and the game itself is released in the next week or two… so yeah, that's gonna take up a lot of my time… *sigh* And then there's Kingdom Hearts 3 coming out in a few more months… So many nerd things…

Thanks for reading and don't forget to review,

Tenstar12


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